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47 \title{Simulation of Asynchronous Iterative Numerical Algorithms Using SimGrid}
51 Charles Emile Ramamonjisoa\IEEEauthorrefmark{1},
52 David Laiymani\IEEEauthorrefmark{1},
53 Arnaud Giersch\IEEEauthorrefmark{1},
54 Lilia Ziane Khodja\IEEEauthorrefmark{2} and
55 Raphaël Couturier\IEEEauthorrefmark{1}
57 \IEEEauthorblockA{\IEEEauthorrefmark{1}%
58 Femto-ST Institute -- DISC Department\\
59 Université de Franche-Comté,
60 IUT de Belfort-Montbéliard\\
61 19 avenue du Maréchal Juin, BP 527, 90016 Belfort cedex, France\\
62 Email: \email{{charles.ramamonjisoa,david.laiymani,arnaud.giersch,raphael.couturier}@univ-fcomte.fr}
64 \IEEEauthorblockA{\IEEEauthorrefmark{2}%
65 Inria Bordeaux Sud-Ouest\\
66 200 avenue de la Vieille Tour, 33405 Talence cedex, France \\
67 Email: \email{lilia.ziane@inria.fr}
73 \RC{Ordre des auteurs pas définitif.}
75 In recent years, the scalability of large-scale implementation in a
76 distributed environment of algorithms becoming more and more complex has
77 always been hampered by the limits of physical computing resources
78 capacity. One solution is to run the program in a virtual environment
79 simulating a real interconnected computers architecture. The results are
80 convincing and useful solutions are obtained with far fewer resources
81 than in a real platform. However, challenges remain for the convergence
82 and efficiency of a class of algorithms that concern us here, namely
83 numerical parallel iterative algorithms executed in asynchronous mode,
84 especially in a large scale level. Actually, such algorithm requires a
85 balance and a compromise between computation and communication time
86 during the execution. Two important factors determine the success of the
87 experimentation: the convergence of the iterative algorithm on a large
88 scale and the execution time reduction in asynchronous mode. Once again,
89 from the current work, a simulated environment like SimGrid provides
90 accurate results which are difficult or even impossible to obtain in a
91 physical platform by exploiting the flexibility of the simulator on the
92 computing units clusters and the network structure design. Our
93 experimental outputs showed a saving of up to \np[\%]{40} for the algorithm
94 execution time in asynchronous mode compared to the synchronous one with
95 a residual precision up to \np{E-11}. Such successful results open
96 perspectives on experimentations for running the algorithm on a
97 simulated large scale growing environment and with larger problem size.
99 % no keywords for IEEE conferences
100 % Keywords: Algorithm distributed iterative asynchronous simulation SimGrid
103 \section{Introduction}
105 Parallel computing and high performance computing (HPC) are becoming more and more imperative for solving various
106 problems raised by researchers on various scientific disciplines but also by industrial in the field. Indeed, the
107 increasing complexity of these requested applications combined with a continuous increase of their sizes lead to write
108 distributed and parallel algorithms requiring significant hardware resources (grid computing, clusters, broadband
109 network, etc.) but also a non-negligible CPU execution time. We consider in this paper a class of highly efficient
110 parallel algorithms called \emph{numerical iterative algorithms} executed in a distributed environment. As their name
111 suggests, these algorithms solve a given problem by successive iterations ($X_{n +1} = f(X_{n})$) from an initial value
112 $X_{0}$ to find an approximate value $X^*$ of the solution with a very low residual error. Several well-known methods
113 demonstrate the convergence of these algorithms~\cite{BT89,Bahi07}.
115 Parallelization of such algorithms generally involve the division of the problem into several \emph{blocks} that will
116 be solved in parallel on multiple processing units. The latter will communicate each intermediate results before a new
117 iteration starts and until the approximate solution is reached. These parallel computations can be performed either in
118 \emph{synchronous} mode where a new iteration begins only when all nodes communications are completed,
119 or in \emph{asynchronous} mode where processors can continue independently with few or no synchronization points. For
120 instance in the \textit{Asynchronous Iterations~-- Asynchronous Communications (AIAC)} model~\cite{bcvc06:ij}, local
121 computations do not need to wait for required data. Processors can then perform their iterations with the data present
122 at that time. Even if the number of iterations required before the convergence is generally greater than for the
123 synchronous case, AIAC algorithms can significantly reduce overall execution times by suppressing idle times due to
124 synchronizations especially in a grid computing context (see~\cite{Bahi07} for more details).
126 Parallel numerical applications (synchronous or asynchronous) may have different
127 configuration and deployment requirements. Quantifying their resource
128 allocation policies and application scheduling algorithms in grid computing
129 environments under varying load, CPU power and network speeds is very costly,
130 very labor intensive and very time
131 consuming~\cite{Calheiros:2011:CTM:1951445.1951450}. The case of AIAC
132 algorithms is even more problematic since they are very sensible to the
133 execution environment context. For instance, variations in the network bandwidth
134 (intra and inter-clusters), in the number and the power of nodes, in the number
135 of clusters\dots{} can lead to very different number of iterations and so to
136 very different execution times. Then, it appears that the use of simulation
137 tools to explore various platform scenarios and to run large numbers of
138 experiments quickly can be very promising. In this way, the use of a simulation
139 environment to execute parallel iterative algorithms found some interests in
140 reducing the highly cost of access to computing resources: (1) for the
141 applications development life cycle and in code debugging (2) and in production
142 to get results in a reasonable execution time with a simulated infrastructure
143 not accessible with physical resources. Indeed, the launch of distributed
144 iterative asynchronous algorithms to solve a given problem on a large-scale
145 simulated environment challenges to find optimal configurations giving the best
146 results with a lowest residual error and in the best of execution time.
148 To our knowledge, there is no existing work on the large-scale simulation of a
149 real AIAC application. The aim of this paper is twofold. First we give a first
150 approach of the simulation of AIAC algorithms using a simulation tool (i.e. the
151 SimGrid toolkit~\cite{SimGrid}). Second, we confirm the effectiveness of
152 asynchronous mode algorithms by comparing their performance with the synchronous
153 mode. More precisely, we had implemented a program for solving large
154 non-symmetric linear system of equations by numerical method GMRES (Generalized
155 Minimal Residual) []\AG[]{[]?}.\LZK{Problème traité dans le papier est symétrique ou asymétrique? (Poisson 3D symétrique?)} We show, that with minor modifications of the
156 initial MPI code, the SimGrid toolkit allows us to perform a test campaign of a
157 real AIAC application on different computing architectures. The simulated
158 results we obtained are in line with real results exposed in ??\AG[]{??}.
159 SimGrid had allowed us to launch the application from a modest computing
160 infrastructure by simulating different distributed architectures composed by
161 clusters nodes interconnected by variable speed networks. With selected
162 parameters on the network platforms (bandwidth, latency of inter cluster
163 network) and on the clusters architecture (number, capacity calculation power)
164 in the simulated environment, the experimental results have demonstrated not
165 only the algorithm convergence within a reasonable time compared with the
166 physical environment performance, but also a time saving of up to \np[\%]{40} in
169 This article is structured as follows: after this introduction, the next section will give a brief description of
170 iterative asynchronous model. Then, the simulation framework SimGrid is presented with the settings to create various
171 distributed architectures. The algorithm of the multisplitting method used by GMRES written with MPI primitives and
172 its adaptation to SimGrid with SMPI (Simulated MPI) is detailed in the next section. At last, the experiments results
173 carried out will be presented before some concluding remarks and future works.
175 \section{Motivations and scientific context}
177 As exposed in the introduction, parallel iterative methods are now widely used in many scientific domains. They can be
178 classified in three main classes depending on how iterations and communications are managed (for more details readers
179 can refer to~\cite{bcvc06:ij}). In the \textit{Synchronous Iterations~-- Synchronous Communications (SISC)} model data
180 are exchanged at the end of each iteration. All the processors must begin the same iteration at the same time and
181 important idle times on processors are generated. The \textit{Synchronous Iterations~-- Asynchronous Communications
182 (SIAC)} model can be compared to the previous one except that data required on another processor are sent asynchronously
183 i.e. without stopping current computations. This technique allows to partially overlap communications by computations
184 but unfortunately, the overlapping is only partial and important idle times remain. It is clear that, in a grid
185 computing context, where the number of computational nodes is large, heterogeneous and widely distributed, the idle
186 times generated by synchronizations are very penalizing. One way to overcome this problem is to use the
187 \textit{Asynchronous Iterations~-- Asynchronous Communications (AIAC)} model. Here, local computations do not need to
188 wait for required data. Processors can then perform their iterations with the data present at that time. Figure~\ref{fig:aiac}
189 illustrates this model where the gray blocks represent the computation phases, the white spaces the idle
190 times and the arrows the communications. With this algorithmic model, the number of iterations required before the
191 convergence is generally greater than for the two former classes. But, and as detailed in~\cite{bcvc06:ij}, AIAC
192 algorithms can significantly reduce overall execution times by suppressing idle times due to synchronizations especially
193 in a grid computing context.
197 \includegraphics[width=8cm]{AIAC.pdf}
198 \caption{The Asynchronous Iterations~-- Asynchronous Communications model}
203 It is very challenging to develop efficient applications for large scale,
204 heterogeneous and distributed platforms such as computing grids. Researchers and
205 engineers have to develop techniques for maximizing application performance of
206 these multi-cluster platforms, by redesigning the applications and/or by using
207 novel algorithms that can account for the composite and heterogeneous nature of
208 the platform. Unfortunately, the deployment of such applications on these very
209 large scale systems is very costly, labor intensive and time consuming. In this
210 context, it appears that the use of simulation tools to explore various platform
211 scenarios at will and to run enormous numbers of experiments quickly can be very
212 promising. Several works\dots{}
214 \AG{Several works\dots{} what?\\
215 Le paragraphe suivant se trouve déjà dans l'intro ?}
216 In the context of AIAC algorithms, the use of simulation tools is even more
217 relevant. Indeed, this class of applications is very sensible to the execution
218 environment context. For instance, variations in the network bandwidth (intra
219 and inter-clusters), in the number and the power of nodes, in the number of
220 clusters\dots{} can lead to very different number of iterations and so to very
221 different execution times.
228 SimGrid~\cite{SimGrid,casanova+legrand+quinson.2008.simgrid} is a simulation
229 framework to study the behavior of large-scale distributed systems. As its name
230 says, it emanates from the grid computing community, but is nowadays used to
231 study grids, clouds, HPC or peer-to-peer systems. The early versions of SimGrid
232 date from 1999, but it's still actively developed and distributed as an open
233 source software. Today, it's one of the major generic tools in the field of
234 simulation for large-scale distributed systems.
236 SimGrid provides several programming interfaces: MSG to simulate Concurrent
237 Sequential Processes, SimDAG to simulate DAGs of (parallel) tasks, and SMPI to
238 run real applications written in MPI~\cite{MPI}. Apart from the native C
239 interface, SimGrid provides bindings for the C++, Java, Lua and Ruby programming
240 languages. SMPI is the interface that has been used for the work exposed in
241 this paper. The SMPI interface implements about \np[\%]{80} of the MPI 2.0
242 standard~\cite{bedaride:hal-00919507}, and supports applications written in C or
243 Fortran, with little or no modifications.
245 With SimGrid, the execution of a distributed application is simulated on a
246 single machine. The application code is really executed, but some operations
247 like the communications are intercepted to be simulated according to the
248 characteristics of the simulated execution platform. The description of this
249 target platform is given as an input for the execution, by the mean of an XML
250 file. It describes the properties of the platform, such as the computing node
251 with their computing power, the interconnection links with their bandwidth and
252 latency, and the routing strategy. The simulated running time of the
253 application is computed according to these properties.
255 \AG{Faut-il ajouter quelque-chose ?}
256 \CER{Comme tu as décrit la plateforme d'exécution, on peut ajouter éventuellement le fichier XML contenant des hosts dans les clusters formant la grille}
258 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
259 \section{Simulation of the multisplitting method}
260 %Décrire le problème (algo) traité ainsi que le processus d'adaptation à SimGrid.
261 Let $Ax=b$ be a large sparse system of $n$ linear equations in $\mathbb{R}$, where $A$ is a sparse square and nonsingular matrix, $x$ is the solution vector and $b$ is the right-hand side vector. We use a multisplitting method based on the block Jacobi splitting to solve this linear system on a large scale platform composed of $L$ clusters of processors~\cite{o1985multi}. In this case, we apply a row-by-row splitting without overlapping
263 \left(\begin{array}{ccc}
264 A_{11} & \cdots & A_{1L} \\
265 \vdots & \ddots & \vdots\\
266 A_{L1} & \cdots & A_{LL}
269 \left(\begin{array}{c}
275 \left(\begin{array}{c}
281 in such a way that successive rows of matrix $A$ and both vectors $x$ and $b$ are assigned to one cluster, where for all $l,m\in\{1,\ldots,L\}$ $A_{lm}$ is a rectangular block of $A$ of size $n_l\times n_m$, $X_l$ and $B_l$ are sub-vectors of $x$ and $b$, respectively, of size $n_l$ each and $\sum_{l} n_l=\sum_{m} n_m=n$.
283 The multisplitting method proceeds by iteration to solve in parallel the linear system on $L$ clusters of processors, in such a way each sub-system
288 A_{ll}X_l = Y_l \text{, such that}\\
289 Y_l = B_l - \displaystyle\sum_{\substack{m=1\\ m\neq l}}^{L}A_{lm}X_m
293 is solved independently by a cluster and communications are required to update the right-hand side sub-vector $Y_l$, such that the sub-vectors $X_m$ represent the data dependencies between the clusters. As each sub-system (\ref{eq:4.1}) is solved in parallel by a cluster of processors, our multisplitting method uses an iterative method as an inner solver which is easier to parallelize and more scalable than a direct method. In this work, we use the parallel algorithm of GMRES method~\cite{ref1} which is one of the most used iterative method by many researchers.
296 %%% IEEE instructions forbid to use an algorithm environment here, use figure
298 \begin{algorithmic}[1]
299 \Input $A_l$ (sparse sub-matrix), $B_l$ (right-hand side sub-vector)
300 \Output $X_l$ (solution sub-vector)\vspace{0.2cm}
301 \State Load $A_l$, $B_l$
302 \State Set the initial guess $x^0$
303 \For {$k=0,1,2,\ldots$ until the global convergence}
304 \State Restart outer iteration with $x^0=x^k$
305 \State Inner iteration: \Call{InnerSolver}{$x^0$, $k+1$}
306 \State\label{algo:01:send} Send shared elements of $X_l^{k+1}$ to neighboring clusters
307 \State\label{algo:01:recv} Receive shared elements in $\{X_m^{k+1}\}_{m\neq l}$
312 \Function {InnerSolver}{$x^0$, $k$}
313 \State Compute local right-hand side $Y_l$:
315 Y_l = B_l - \sum\nolimits^L_{\substack{m=1\\ m\neq l}}A_{lm}X_m^0
317 \State Solving sub-system $A_{ll}X_l^k=Y_l$ with the parallel GMRES method
318 \State \Return $X_l^k$
321 \caption{A multisplitting solver with GMRES method}
325 Algorithm on Figure~\ref{algo:01} shows the main key points of the
326 multisplitting method to solve a large sparse linear system. This algorithm is
327 based on an outer-inner iteration method where the parallel synchronous GMRES
328 method is used to solve the inner iteration. It is executed in parallel by each
329 cluster of processors. For all $l,m\in\{1,\ldots,L\}$, the matrices and vectors
330 with the subscript $l$ represent the local data for cluster $l$, while
331 $\{A_{lm}\}_{m\neq l}$ are off-diagonal matrices of sparse matrix $A$ and
332 $\{X_m\}_{m\neq l}$ contain vector elements of solution $x$ shared with
333 neighboring clusters. At every outer iteration $k$, asynchronous communications
334 are performed between processors of the local cluster and those of distant
335 clusters (lines~\ref{algo:01:send} and~\ref{algo:01:recv} in
336 Figure~\ref{algo:01}). The shared vector elements of the solution $x$ are
337 exchanged by message passing using MPI non-blocking communication routines.
341 \includegraphics[width=60mm,keepaspectratio]{clustering}
342 \caption{Example of three clusters of processors interconnected by a virtual unidirectional ring network.}
346 The global convergence of the asynchronous multisplitting solver is detected
347 when the clusters of processors have all converged locally. We implemented the
348 global convergence detection process as follows. On each cluster a master
349 processor is designated (for example the processor with rank 1) and masters of
350 all clusters are interconnected by a virtual unidirectional ring network (see
351 Figure~\ref{fig:4.1}). During the resolution, a Boolean token circulates around
352 the virtual ring from a master processor to another until the global convergence
353 is achieved. So starting from the cluster with rank 1, each master processor $i$
354 sets the token to \textit{True} if the local convergence is achieved or to
355 \text\it{False} otherwise, and sends it to master processor $i+1$. Finally, the
356 global convergence is detected when the master of cluster 1 receives from the
357 master of cluster $L$ a token set to \textit{True}. In this case, the master of
358 cluster 1 broadcasts a stop message to masters of other clusters. In this work,
359 the local convergence on each cluster $l$ is detected when the following
360 condition is satisfied
362 (k\leq \MI) \text{ or } (\|X_l^k - X_l^{k+1}\|_{\infty}\leq\epsilon)
364 where $\MI$ is the maximum number of outer iterations and $\epsilon$ is the tolerance threshold of the error computed between two successive local solution $X_l^k$ and $X_l^{k+1}$.
366 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
367 We did not encounter major blocking problems when adapting the multisplitting algorithm previously described to a simulation environment like SimGrid unless some code
368 debugging. Indeed, apart from the review of the program sequence for asynchronous exchanges between the six neighbors of each point (left,right,front,behind,top,down) in a cubic partitionned submatrix within a cluster or between clusters, \CER{J'ai rajouté quelques précisions mais serait-il nécessaire de décrire a ce niveau la discrétisation 3D ?}
369 \LZK{Non ce n'est pas nécessaire. A ce niveau, on décrit l'algorithme général de multisplitting. Donc, je pense qu'il est préférable de ne pas préciser le schéma de communication qui peut changer selon le type de problème. \\ {\bf Par exemple: Indeed, apart from the review of the program sequence for asynchronous exchanges between processors within a cluster or between clusters}}
370 the algorithm was executed successfully with SMPI and provided identical outputs as those obtained with direct execution under MPI. In synchronous
371 mode, the execution of the program raised no particular issue but in asynchronous mode, the review of the sequence of MPI\_Isend, MPI\_Irecv and MPI\_Waitall instructions
372 and with the addition of the primitive MPI\_Test was needed to avoid a memory fault due to an infinite loop resulting from the non-convergence of the algorithm.
373 \CER{On voulait en fait montrer la simplicité de l'adaptation de l'algo a SimGrid. Les problèmes rencontrés décrits dans ce paragraphe concerne surtout le mode async}\LZK{OK. J'aurais préféré avoir un peu plus de détails sur l'adaptation de la version async}
374 Note here that the use of SMPI functions optimizer for memory footprint and CPU usage is not recommended knowing that one wants to get real results by simulation.
375 As mentioned, upon this adaptation, the algorithm is executed as in the real life in the simulated environment after the following minor changes. First, all declared
376 global variables have been moved to local variables for each subroutine. In fact, global variables generate side effects arising from the concurrent access of
377 shared memory used by threads simulating each computing unit in the SimGrid architecture. Second, the alignment of certain types of variables such as ``long int'' had
378 also to be reviewed. Finally, some compilation errors on MPI\_Waitall and MPI\_Finalize primitives have been fixed with the latest version of SimGrid.
379 In total, the initial MPI program running on the simulation environment SMPI gave after a very simple adaptation the same results as those obtained in a real
380 environment. We have tested in synchronous mode with a simulated platform starting from a modest 2 or 3 clusters grid to a larger configuration like simulating
381 Grid5000 with more than 1500 hosts with 5000 cores~\cite{bolze2006grid}.
385 \section{Experimental results}
387 When the \textit{real} application runs in the simulation environment and produces the expected results, varying the input
388 parameters and the program arguments allows us to compare outputs from the code execution. We have noticed from this
389 study that the results depend on the following parameters:
391 \item At the network level, we found that the most critical values are the
392 bandwidth (bw) and the network latency (lat).
393 \item Hosts power (GFlops) can also influence on the results.
394 \item Finally, when submitting job batches for execution, the arguments values
395 passed to the program like the maximum number of iterations or the
396 \textit{external} precision are critical. They allow to ensure not only the
397 convergence of the algorithm but also to get the main objective of the
398 experimentation of the simulation in having an execution time in asynchronous
399 less than in synchronous mode (i.e. speed-up less than 1).
401 \LZK{Propositions pour changer le terme ``speedup'': acceleration ratio ou relative gain}
403 A priori, obtaining a speedup less than 1 would be difficult in a local area
404 network configuration where the synchronous mode will take advantage on the
405 rapid exchange of information on such high-speed links. Thus, the methodology
406 adopted was to launch the application on clustered network. In this last
407 configuration, degrading the inter-cluster network performance will
408 \textit{penalize} the synchronous mode allowing to get a speedup lower than 1.
409 This action simulates the case of clusters linked with long distance network
412 As a first step, the algorithm was run on a network consisting of two clusters
413 containing 50 hosts each, totaling 100 hosts. Various combinations of the above
414 factors have providing the results shown in Table~\ref{tab.cluster.2x50} with a
415 matrix size ranging from $N_x = N_y = N_z = \text{62}$ to 171 elements or from
416 $\text{62}^\text{3} = \text{\np{238328}}$ to $\text{171}^\text{3} =
417 \text{\np{5211000}}$ entries.
418 \CER{Voir ma remarque plus si nécessaire de décrire en détail le partitionnement 3D}
419 \LZK{Je pense qu'il faut donner ici le type du problème traité (Poisson 3D). Le partitionnement 3D permet juste de définir le schéma de dépendances (1 proc a au max 6 voisins dans le cluster local ou dans les clusters distants)}
420 % use the same column width for the following three tables
421 \newlength{\mytablew}\settowidth{\mytablew}{\footnotesize\np{E-11}}
422 \newenvironment{mytable}[1]{% #1: number of columns for data
423 \renewcommand{\arraystretch}{1.3}%
424 \begin{tabular}{|>{\bfseries}r%
425 |*{#1}{>{\centering\arraybackslash}p{\mytablew}|}}}{%
430 \caption{2 clusters, each with 50 nodes}
431 \label{tab.cluster.2x50}
436 & 5 & 5 & 5 & 5 & 5 & 50 \\
439 & 0.02 & 0.02 & 0.02 & 0.02 & 0.02 & 0.02 \\
442 & 1 & 1 & 1 & 1.5 & 1.5 & 1.5 \\
445 & 62 & 62 & 62 & 100 & 100 & 110 \\
448 & \np{E-5} & \np{E-8} & \np{E-9} & \np{E-11} & \np{E-11} & \np{E-11} \\
451 & 0.396 & 0.392 & 0.396 & 0.391 & 0.393 & 0.395 \\
460 & 50 & 50 & 50 & 50 & 10 & 10 \\
463 & 0.02 & 0.02 & 0.02 & 0.02 & 0.03 & 0.01 \\
466 & 1.5 & 1.5 & 1.5 & 1.5 & 1 & 1.5 \\
469 & 120 & 130 & 140 & 150 & 171 & 171 \\
472 & \np{E-11} & \np{E-11} & \np{E-11} & \np{E-11} & \np{E-5} & \np{E-5} \\
475 & 0.398 & 0.388 & 0.393 & 0.394 & 0.63 & 0.778 \\
480 Then we have changed the network configuration using three clusters containing
481 respectively 33, 33 and 34 hosts, or again by on hundred hosts for all the
482 clusters. In the same way as above, a judicious choice of key parameters has
483 permitted to get the results in Table~\ref{tab.cluster.3x33} which shows the
484 speedups less than 1 with a matrix size from 62 to 100 elements.
488 \caption{3 clusters, each with 33 nodes}
489 \label{tab.cluster.3x33}
494 & 10 & 5 & 4 & 3 & 2 & 6 \\
497 & 0.01 & 0.02 & 0.02 & 0.02 & 0.02 & 0.02 \\
500 & 1 & 1 & 1 & 1 & 1 & 1 \\
503 & 62 & 100 & 100 & 100 & 100 & 171 \\
506 & \np{E-5} & \np{E-5} & \np{E-5} & \np{E-5} & \np{E-5} & \np{E-5} \\
509 & 0.997 & 0.99 & 0.93 & 0.84 & 0.78 & 0.99 \\
514 In a final step, results of an execution attempt to scale up the three clustered
515 configuration but increasing by two hundreds hosts has been recorded in
516 Table~\ref{tab.cluster.3x67}.
520 \caption{3 clusters, each with 66 nodes}
521 \label{tab.cluster.3x67}
533 Prec/Eprec & \np{E-5} \\
540 Note that the program was run with the following parameters:
542 \paragraph*{SMPI parameters}
545 \item HOSTFILE: Hosts file description.
546 \item PLATFORM: file description of the platform architecture : clusters (CPU power,
547 \dots{}), intra cluster network description, inter cluster network (bandwidth bw,
548 lat latency, \dots{}).
552 \paragraph*{Arguments of the program}
555 \item Description of the cluster architecture;
556 \item Maximum number of internal and external iterations;
557 \item Internal and external precisions;
558 \item Matrix size $N_x$, $N_y$ and $N_z$;
560 \item Matrix diagonal value: \np{6.0};
561 \item Matrix Off-diagonal value: \np{-1.0};
563 %>>>>>>> 5fb6769d88c1720b6480a28521119ef010462fa6
564 \item Execution Mode: synchronous or asynchronous.
567 \paragraph*{Interpretations and comments}
569 After analyzing the outputs, generally, for the configuration with two or three
570 clusters including one hundred hosts (Tables~\ref{tab.cluster.2x50}
571 and~\ref{tab.cluster.3x33}), some combinations of the used parameters affecting
572 the results have given a speedup less than 1, showing the effectiveness of the
573 asynchronous performance compared to the synchronous mode.
575 In the case of a two clusters configuration, Table~\ref{tab.cluster.2x50} shows
576 that with a deterioration of inter cluster network set with \np[Mbit/s]{5} of
577 bandwidth, a latency in order of a hundredth of a millisecond and a system power
578 of one GFlops, an efficiency of about \np[\%]{40} in asynchronous mode is
579 obtained for a matrix size of 62 elements. It is noticed that the result remains
580 stable even if we vary the external precision from \np{E-5} to \np{E-9}. By
581 increasing the problem size up to 100 elements, it was necessary to increase the
582 CPU power of \np[\%]{50} to \np[GFlops]{1.5} for a convergence of the algorithm
583 with the same order of asynchronous mode efficiency. Maintaining such a system
584 power but this time, increasing network throughput inter cluster up to
585 \np[Mbit/s]{50}, the result of efficiency of about \np[\%]{40} is obtained with
586 high external precision of \np{E-11} for a matrix size from 110 to 150 side
589 For the 3 clusters architecture including a total of 100 hosts,
590 Table~\ref{tab.cluster.3x33} shows that it was difficult to have a combination
591 which gives an efficiency of asynchronous below \np[\%]{80}. Indeed, for a
592 matrix size of 62 elements, equality between the performance of the two modes
593 (synchronous and asynchronous) is achieved with an inter cluster of
594 \np[Mbit/s]{10} and a latency of \np[ms]{E-1}. To challenge an efficiency by
595 \np[\%]{78} with a matrix size of 100 points, it was necessary to degrade the
596 inter cluster network bandwidth from 5 to \np[Mbit/s]{2}.
598 A last attempt was made for a configuration of three clusters but more powerful
599 with 200 nodes in total. The convergence with a speedup of \np[\%]{90} was
600 obtained with a bandwidth of \np[Mbit/s]{1} as shown in
601 Table~\ref{tab.cluster.3x67}.
603 \LZK{Dans le papier, on compare les deux versions synchrone et asycnhrone du multisplitting. Y a t il des résultats pour comparer gmres parallèle classique avec multisplitting asynchrone? Ca permettra de montrer l'intérêt du multisplitting asynchrone sur des clusters distants}
606 The experimental results on executing a parallel iterative algorithm in
607 asynchronous mode on an environment simulating a large scale of virtual
608 computers organized with interconnected clusters have been presented.
609 Our work has demonstrated that using such a simulation tool allow us to
610 reach the following three objectives:
613 \item To have a flexible configurable execution platform resolving the
614 hard exercise to access to very limited but so solicited physical
616 \item to ensure the algorithm convergence with a reasonable time and
618 \item and finally and more importantly, to find the correct combination
619 of the cluster and network specifications permitting to save time in
620 executing the algorithm in asynchronous mode.
622 Our results have shown that in certain conditions, asynchronous mode is
623 speeder up to \np[\%]{40} than executing the algorithm in synchronous mode
624 which is not negligible for solving complex practical problems with more
625 and more increasing size.
627 Several studies have already addressed the performance execution time of
628 this class of algorithm. The work presented in this paper has
629 demonstrated an original solution to optimize the use of a simulation
630 tool to run efficiently an iterative parallel algorithm in asynchronous
631 mode in a grid architecture.
633 \LZK{Perspectives???}
635 \section*{Acknowledgment}
637 This work is partially funded by the Labex ACTION program (contract ANR-11-LABX-01-01).
638 \todo[inline]{The authors would like to thank\dots{}}
640 % trigger a \newpage just before the given reference
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644 \bibliographystyle{IEEEtran}
645 \bibliography{IEEEabrv,hpccBib}
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