Dynamic load-balancing for BSP Time Warp

The performance of a parallel simulation system depends very much on partitioning simulation workload evenly among the set of processors in the computing environment to ensure load-balance between processors. Most parallel simulation systems employ user-defined static partitioning. However static partitioning requires in-depth domain knowledge of the specific simulation model in the study. It is not effective if the workload of a simulation model could not be quantified accurately or changes over time during a simulation run. Dynamic load-balancing allows the simulation system to automatically balance the workload of different simulation models without user's input. In this paper the use of dynamic load-balancing in the context of the BSP Time Warp optimistic protocol is examined. Based on the BSP cost model, a dynamic load-balancing algorithm for the BSP Time Warp protocol is developed. Using different simulation models, the paper shows that to achieve consistent performance, the dynamic load-balancing algorithm for BSP Time Warp needs to consider both computation and communication workload, as well as lookaheads between processors.

[1]  Samir R. Das,et al.  A performance study of the cancelback protocol for Time Warp , 1993, PADS '93.

[2]  David R. Jefferson,et al.  Dynamic load management in the time warp operating system , 1990 .

[3]  Leslie G. Valiant,et al.  A bridging model for parallel computation , 1990, CACM.

[4]  Khalil El-Khatib,et al.  On metrics for the dynamic load balancing of optimistic simulations , 1999, Proceedings of the 32nd Annual Hawaii International Conference on Systems Sciences. 1999. HICSS-32. Abstracts and CD-ROM of Full Papers.

[5]  Mauricio Marín.  Discrete-event simulation on the bulk-synchronous parallel model , 1998 .

[6]  Carl Tropper,et al.  On learning algorithms and balancing loads in Time Warp , 1999, Proceedings Thirteenth Workshop on Parallel and Distributed Simulation. PADS 99. (Cat. No.PR00155).

[7]  Stephen John Turner,et al.  An Empirical Comparison of Runtime Systems for Conservative Parallel Simulation , 1998, IPPS/SPDP Workshops.

[8]  R.M. Fujimoto,et al.  Parallel and distributed simulation systems , 2001, Proceeding of the 2001 Winter Simulation Conference (Cat. No.01CH37304).