Realistic models and efficient algorithms for fault-tolerant scheduling on heterogeneous platforms

Abstract

(eng) Abstract Most list scheduling heuristics rely on a simple platform model where communication contention is not taken into account. In addition, it is generally assumed that processors in the systems are completely safe. To schedule precedence graphs in a more realistic framework, we introduce an efficient fault tolerant scheduling algorithm that is both contentionaware and capable of supporting " arbitrary fail-silent (fail-stop) processor failures. We focus on a bi-criteria approach, where we aim at minimizing the total execution time, or latency, given a fixed number of failures supported in the system. Our algorithm has a low time complexity, and drastically reduces the number of additional communications induced by the replication mechanism. Experimental results fully demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed algorithm, which leads to efficient execution schemes while guaranteeing a prescribed level of fault tolerance.