\newcommand{\VAR}[1]{\textit{#1}}
\newcommand{\besteffort}{\emph{best effort}}
-\newcommand{\makhoul}{\emph{Makhoul}}
+\newcommand{\makhoul}{\emph{naive}}
\begin{document}
\begin{abstract}
Most of the time, asynchronous load balancing algorithms have extensively been
studied in a theoretical point of view. The Bertsekas and Tsitsiklis'
- algorithm~\cite[section~7.4]{bertsekas+tsitsiklis.1997.parallel} is certainly
- the most well known algorithm for which the convergence proof is given. From a
- practical point of view, when a node wants to balance a part of its load to
- some of its neighbors, the strategy is not described. In this paper, we
- propose a strategy called \besteffort{} which tries to balance the load
+ algorithm~\cite
+ %[section~7.4]
+ {bertsekas+tsitsiklis.1997.parallel} is undeniably
+ the most well known algorithm for which the asymptotic convergence proof is given.
+ From a
+ practical point of view, when a node needs to balance a part of its load to
+ some of its neighbors, the algorithm's description is unfortunately too succinct, and no details are given on what is really sent and how the load balancing decisions are taken. In this paper, we
+ propose a new strategy called \besteffort{} which tries to balance the load
of a node to all its less loaded neighbors while ensuring that all the nodes
- concerned by the load balancing phase have the same amount of load. Moreover,
- asynchronous iterative algorithms, in which an asynchronous load balancing
- algorithm is implemented, can dissociate, most of the time, messages concerning
- load transfers and message concerning load information. In order to increase
- the converge of a load balancing algorithm, we propose a simple heuristic
- called \emph{virtual load}. This heuristic allows a node that receives a load
- information message to integrate this information, even if the load has not been received yet. Consequently the node sends a (real) part of its load to some of
- its neighbors taking into account the virtual load it will receive soon. In order to validate our approaches, we have defined a
- simulator based on SimGrid which allowed us to conduct many experiments.
+ involved by the load balancing phase have the same amount of load. Moreover, since
+ asynchronous iterative algorithms are less sensitive to communications delays
+ and their variations, both load transfer and load information messages are dissociated.
+ To speedup the convergence time of the load balancing process, we propose {\it a clairvoyant virtual load} heuristic which allows
+ %asynchronous iterative algorithms, in which an asynchronous load balancing
+ %algorithm is implemented, can dissociate, most of the time, messages concerning
+ %load transfers and message concerning load information. In order to increase
+ %the converge of a load balancing algorithm, we propose a simple heuristic
+ %called \emph{virtual load}. This heuristic allows
+ a node that receives a load
+ information message to integrate the future virtual load (if any) in its load's list, even if the load has not been received yet. This leads to have predictive snapshots of nodes' loads. Consequently the node sends a real part of its load to some of
+ its neighbors taking into account the virtual load it will receive in the subsequent time-steps. Based on SimGrid simulator, series of test-bed scenarios are considered and many QoS metrics are evaluated to show the usefulness of the proposed algorithm. %In order to validate our approaches, we have defined a
+ % simulator based on SimGrid which allowed us to conduct many experiments.
\end{abstract}
% \begin{keywords}
\section{Introduction}
-Load balancing algorithms are extensively used in parallel and distributed
-applications in order to reduce the execution times. They can be applied in
-different scientific fields from high performance computation to micro sensor
-networks. In a distributed context (i.e. without centralization), they are iterative by nature.
-In literature many kinds of load
-balancing algorithms have been studied. They can be classified according
-different criteria: centralized or decentralized, in static or dynamic
-environment, with homogeneous or heterogeneous load, using synchronous or
-asynchronous iterations, with a static topology or a dynamic one which evolves
-during time. In this work, we focus on asynchronous load balancing algorithms
-where computing nodes are considered homogeneous and with homogeneous load with
-no external load. In this context, Bertsekas and Tsitsiklis have proposed an
-algorithm which is definitively a reference for many works. In their work, they
-proved that under classical hypotheses of asynchronous iterative algorithms and
-a special constraint avoiding \emph{ping-pong} effect, an asynchronous
-iterative algorithm converges to the uniform load distribution. This work has
-been extended by many authors. For example, Cortés et al., with
-DASUD~\cite{cortes+ripoll+cedo+al.2002.asynchronous}, propose a
-version working with integer load. This work was later generalized by
-the same authors in \cite{cedo+cortes+ripoll+al.2007.convergence}.
-\FIXME{Rajouter des choses ici. Lesquelles ?}
-
-Although the Bertsekas and Tsitsiklis' algorithm describes the condition to
-ensure the convergence, there is no indication or strategy to really implement
-the load distribution. In other word, a node can send a part of its load to one
+Load balancing algorithms are widely used in parallel and distributed
+applications to achieve high performances in terms of response time, throughput and resources usage. They play an important role and arise in various fields ranging from parallel and distributed
+computing systems to wireless sensor networks (WSN).
+The objective of load balancing is to orchestrate the distribution of the global workload so that
+the load difference between the computational resources of the network is
+minimized as low as possible. Unfortunately, this problem is known to be {\bf NP-Hard} in its
+general forms and heuristics are required to achieve sub-optimal solutions but in
+polynomial time complexity.
+
+In this paper, we focus on asynchronous load balancing of non negative real numbers of {\it divisible loads}
+in homogeneous distributed systems. Loads can be divided in arbitrary {\it fine-grain} parallel parts size
+that can be processed independently of each other. This model of divisible loads arise in
+a wide range of real-world applications. Common examples among many, include signal processing,
+feature extraction and edge detection in image processing, records search in a huge databases,
+average consensus in WSN, pattern search in Big data and so on. % c'est pout toi raphael ;-)
+
+In the literature, the problem of load balancing has been formulated and studied in various ways. The first pioneering work is due to Bertsekas and Tsitsiklis~\cite{bertsekas+tsitsiklis.1997.parallel}. Under some specific hypothesis and {\it ping-pong} awareness conditions (see section~\ref{sec.bt-algo} for more details), an asymptotic convergence proof is derived. This algorithm has been borrowed and adapted in many works. For instance, in~\cite{CortesRCSL02} a static load balancing (called DASUD) for non negative integer number of divisible loads in arbitrary networks topologies is investigated. The term {\it "static"} stems from the fact that no loads are added or consumed during the load balancing process. The theoretical correctness proofs of the convergence property are given. Some generalizations of the same authors' own work for partially asynchronous discrete load balancing model are presented in~\cite{cedo+cortes+ripoll+al.2007.convergence}. The authors prove that the algorithm's convergence is finite and bounded by the straightforward network's diameter of the global equilibrium threshold in the network. In~\cite{bahi+giersch+makhoul.2008.scalable}, a fault tolerant communication version is addressed to deal with average consensus in wireless sensor networks. The objective is to have all nodes converged to the average of their initial measurements based only on nodes' local information. A slight adaptation is also considered in~\cite{BahiCG10} for dynamic networks with bounded delays asynchronous diffusion. The dynamical aspect stands at the communication level as links between the network's resources may be intermittent.
+
+
+
+
+%in order to reduce the execution times. They can be applied in
+%different scientific fields from high performance computation to micro sensor
+%networks. In a distributed context (i.e. without centralization), they are iterative by nature.
+%In literature many kinds of load
+%balancing algorithms have been studied. They can be classified according
+%different criteria: centralized or decentralized, in static or dynamic
+%environment, with homogeneous or heterogeneous load, using synchronous or
+%asynchronous iterations, with a static topology or a dynamic one which evolves
+%during time. In this work, we focus on asynchronous load balancing algorithms
+%where computing nodes are considered homogeneous and with homogeneous load with
+%no external load.
+
+
+%In this context, Bertsekas and Tsitsiklis have proposed an
+%algorithm which is definitively a reference for many works. In their work, they
+%proved that under classical hypotheses of asynchronous iterative algorithms and
+%a special constraint avoiding \emph{ping-pong} effect, an asynchronous
+%iterative algorithm converges to the uniform load distribution. This work has
+%been extended by many authors. For example, Cortés et al., with
+%DASUD~\cite{cortes+ripoll+cedo+al.2002.asynchronous}, propose a
+%version working with integer load. This work was later generalized by
+%the same authors in \cite{cedo+cortes+ripoll+al.2007.convergence}.
+%\FIXME{Rajouter des choses ici. Lesquelles ?}
+
+Although Bertsekas and Tsitsiklis' describe the necessary conditions to
+ensure the algorithm's convergence, there is no indication or any strategy to really implement
+the load distribution. In other word, a node can send some amount of its load to one
or many of its neighbors while all the convergence conditions are
followed. Consequently, we propose a new strategy called \besteffort{}
that tries to balance the load of a node to all its less loaded neighbors while
-ensuring that all the nodes concerned by the load balancing phase have the same
-amount of load. Moreover, when real asynchronous applications are considered,
-using asynchronous load balancing algorithms can reduce the execution
-times. Most of the times, it is simpler to distinguish load information messages
+ensuring that all the nodes involved in the load balancing phase have the same
+amount of load. Moreover, %when real-world asynchronous applications are considered,
+%using asynchronous load balancing algorithms can reduce the execution
+%times.
+most of the times, it is simpler to dissociate load information messages
from data migration messages. Former ones allow a node to inform its
-neighbors of its current load. These messages are very small, they can be sent
+neighbors about its current load. These messages are in fact very small and can be sent
often and very quickly. For example, if a computing iteration takes a significant times
(ranging from seconds to minutes), it is possible to send a new load information
-message to each neighbor at each iteration. Then the load is sent, but the reception may take time when the amount of load is huge and when communication links are slow. Depending on the application, it may have
+message to each involved neighbor at each iteration. Then the load is sent, but the reception may take time when the amount of load is huge and when communication links are slow. Depending on the application, it may have
sense or not that nodes try to balance a part of their load at each computing
iteration. But the time to transfer a load message from a node to another one is
-often much more longer that to time to transfer a load information message. So,
-when a node receives the information that later it will receive a data message,
-it can take this information into account and it can consider that its new load
-is larger. Consequently, it can send a part of it real load to some of its
-neighbors if required. We call this trick the \emph{virtual load} mechanism.
+often much more longer that the time to transfer a load information message. So,
+when a node is notified
+%receives the information
+that later it will receive a data message,
+it can take this information into account in its load's queue list for preventive purposes.
+%and it can consider that its new load is larger.
+Consequently, it can send a part of its predictive
+%real
+load to some of its
+neighbors if required. We call this trick the \emph{clairvoyant virtual load} transfer mechanism.
+
+\medskip
+The main contributions and novelties of our work are summarized in the following section.
+
+\subsection{Our contributions}
+
-{\bf The contributions of this paper are the following:}
\begin{itemize}
-\item We propose a new strategy to improve the distribution of the
-load and a simple but efficient trick that also improves the load
-balancing.
-\item we have conducted many simulations with SimGrid in order to
-validate that our improvements are really efficient. Our simulations consider
-that in order to send a message, a latency delays the sending and according to
-the network performance and the message size, the time of the reception of the
-message also varies.
+\item We propose a {\it best effort strategy} which proceeds greedily to achieve efficient local neighborhoods equilibrium. Upon local load imbalance detection, a {\it significant amount} of load is moved from a highly loaded node (initiator) to less loaded neighbors.
+
+\item Unlike earlier works, we use a new concept of virtual loads transfers which allows nodes to predict the future loads they will receive in the subsequent iterations.
+This leads to a noticeable speedup of the global convergence time of the load balancing process.
+
+\item We use SimGrid simulator which is known to be able to characterize and modelize realistic models of computation and communication in different types of platforms. We show that taking into account both loads transfers' costs and network contention is essential and has a real impact on the quality of the load balancing performances.
+
+%\item We improve the straightforward network's diameter bound of the global equilibrium threshold in the network. % not sure, it depends on the remaining time before the paper submission ...
\end{itemize}
-In the following of this paper, Section~\ref{sec.bt-algo} describes the
-Bertsekas and Tsitsiklis' asynchronous load balancing algorithm. Moreover, we
-present a possible problem in the convergence conditions. In Section~\ref{sec.related.works}, related works are presented.
-Section~\ref{sec.besteffort} presents the best effort strategy which provides an
-efficient way to reduce the execution times. This strategy will be compared
-with other ones, presented in Section~\ref{sec.other}. In
-Section~\ref{sec.virtual-load}, the virtual load mechanism is proposed.
-Simulations allowed to show that both our approaches are valid using a quite
-realistic model detailed in Section~\ref{sec.simulations}. Finally we give a
-conclusion and some perspectives to this work.
+%{\bf The contributions of this paper are the following:}
+%\begin{itemize}
+%\item We propose a new strategy to improve the distribution of the
+%load and a simple but efficient trick that also improves the load
+%balancing.
+%\item we have conducted many simulations with SimGrid in order to
+%validate that our improvements are really efficient. Our simulations consider
+%that in order to send a message, a latency delays the sending and according to
+%the network performance and the message size, the time of the reception of the
+%message also varies.
+%\end{itemize}
+
+The reminder of the paper is organized as follows.
+In Section~\ref{sec.related.works}, we review the relevant related works in load balancing. Section~\ref{sec.bt-algo} describes the
+Bertsekas and Tsitsiklis' asynchronous load balancing algorithm. %Moreover, we present a possible problem in the convergence conditions.
+Section~\ref{sec.besteffort} presents the best effort strategy which provides
+efficient local loads equilibrium. This strategy will be compared with other existing competitor ones, presented in Section~\ref{sec.other}. In
+Section~\ref{sec.virtual-load}, the clairvoyant virtual load scheme is proposed to speedup the convergence time of the load balancing process.
+We provide in Section~\ref{sec.simulations}, a comprehensive set of numerical results that exhibit the usefulness of our proposals when we deal with realistic models of computation and communication. Finally, we give some concluding remarks in Section~\ref{conclusions-remarks}.
+
+
+\section{Related works}
+\label{sec.related.works}
+In this section, we fairly review the relevant techniques proposed in the literature to tackle the problem of load balancing in a general context of distributed systems.
+
+
+In order to achieve the load balancing of cloud data centers, a LB technique based on Bayes theorem and Clustering is proposed in~\cite{zhao2016heuristic}. The main idea of this approach is that, the Bayes theorem is combined with the clustering process to obtain the optimal clustering set of physical target hosts leading to the overall load balancing equilibrium.
+
+
+Bidding is a market-technique for task scheduling and load balancing in distributed systems
+that characterize a set of negotiation rules for users' jobs. For instance, Izakian et al~\cite{IzakianAL10} formulate a double auction mechanism for tasks-resources matching in grid computing environments where resources are considered as provider agents and users as consumer ones. Each entity participates in the network independently and makes autonomous decisions. A provider agent determines its bid price based on its current workload, and each consumer agent defines its bid value based on two main parameters: average remaining time and remaining resources for bidding. Based on JADE simulator, the proposed algorithm exhibits better performances in terms of successful execution rates, resource utilization rates and fair profit allocation.
+
+
+Choi et al.~\cite{ChoiBH09} address the problem of robust task allocation in arbitrary networks. The proposed
+approaches combine bidding approach for task selection and consensus procedure scheme for
+decentralized conflict resolution. The developed algorithms are proven to converge to a conflict-free assignment in
+both single and multiple task assignment problem.
+An online stochastic dual gradient LB algorithm which is called DGLB is proposed in~\cite{chen2017dglb}. The authors deal with both workload and energy management for cloud networks consisting of multiple geo-distributed mapping nodes and data Centers. To enable online distributed implementation, tasks are decomposed both across time and space by leveraging a dual decomposition approach. Experimental results corroborate the merits of the proposed algorithm.
+
+
+In~\cite{tripathi2017non} a LB algorithm based on game theory is proposed for distributed data centers. The authors formulate the LB problem as a non-cooperative game among front-end proxy servers and characterize the structure of Nash equilibrium. Based on the obtained Nash equilibrium structure, they derive a LB algorithm for computing the Nash equilibrium. They show through simulations that the proposed algorithm ensures fairness among the users and good average latency across all client regions.
+
+
+A hybrid task scheduling and load balancing dependent and independent tasks for master-slaves platforms is addressed in~In~\cite{liu2017dems}. To minimize the response time of the submitted jobs, the proposed algorithm which is called DeMS is splitted in three stages: i) communication overhead reduction between masters and slaves, ii) task migration to keep the workload balanced iii) and precedence task graphs partitioning.
+
+
+In~\cite{GrosuC05}, the authors formulate the load balancing problem as a non-cooperative game among users. They use the Nash equilibrium as the solution of this game to optimize the response time of all jobs in the entire system. The proposed scheme guarantees the optimal task allocation for each user with low time complexity.
+
+
+A game theoretic approach to tackle the static load balancing problem is also investigated in~\cite{PenmatsaC11}. To provide fairness to all users in the system, the load balancing problem is formulated as a non-cooperative game among the users to minimize the response time of the submitted users' jobs. As in~\cite{GrosuC05}, the authors use the concept of Nash equilibrium as the solution of a non-cooperative game. Simulations results show that the proposed scheme perform near optimal solutions compared to other existing techniques in terms of fairness.
+
+
+Cybenko~\cite{Cybenko89} propose a {\it diffusion} approach for hypercube multiprocessor networks.
+The author targets both static and dynamic random models of work distribution.
+The convergence proof is derived based on the {\it eigenstructure} of the
+iteration matrices that arise in load balancing of equal amount of
+computational works. A static load balancing for both synchronous and asynchronous ring networks is addressed in~\cite{GehrkePR99}. The authors assume that at any time step, at most one token (units of load) can be transmitted along any edge of the ring and no tokens are created during the balancing phase. They show that for every initial token distribution, the proposed algorithm converges to the stable equilibrium with tighter linear bounds of time step-complexity.
+
+%\medskip
+%{\bf ****** 2 references will be added ******}
+
\section{Bertsekas and Tsitsiklis' asynchronous load balancing algorithm}
\label{sec.bt-algo}
-In order prove the convergence of asynchronous iterative load balancing
-Bertsekas and Tsitsiklis proposed a model
-in~\cite{bertsekas+tsitsiklis.1997.parallel}. Here we recall some notations.
-Consider that $N={1,...,n}$ processors are connected through a network.
-Communication links are represented by a connected undirected graph $G=(N,A)$
-where $A$ is the set of links connecting different processors. In this work, we
-consider that processors are homogeneous for sake of simplicity. It is quite
-easy to tackle the heterogeneous case~\cite{ElsMonPre02}. Load of processor $i$
+In this section, we present a brief description of Bertsekas and Tsitsiklis' algorithm~\cite{bertsekas+tsitsiklis.1997.parallel} using its original notations.
+A network is modeled as a connected undirected graph $G=(N,A)$, where $N$ is set
+of processors and $A$ is a set of communication links. The processors are
+labeled $i = 1,...,n$, and a link between processors $i$ and
+$j$ is denoted by $(i, j)\in A$. In this work, we
+consider that processors are homogeneous for sake of simplicity.
+It is easily extendable to the case of heterogeneous platforms
+by scaling the processor's load by its computing power~\cite{ElsMonPre02}.
+%In order prove the convergence of asynchronous iterative load balancing
+%Bertsekas and Tsitsiklis proposed a model
+%in~\cite{bertsekas+tsitsiklis.1997.parallel}. Here we recall some notations.
+%Consider that $N={1,...,n}$ processors are connected through a network.
+%Communication links are represented by a connected undirected graph $G=(N,A)$
+%where $A$ is the set of links connecting different processors.
+%In this work, we
+%consider that processors are homogeneous for sake of simplicity. It is quite
+%easy to tackle the heterogeneous case~\cite{ElsMonPre02}.
+Load of processor $i$
at time $t$ is represented by $x_i(t)\geq 0$. Let $V(i)$ be the set of
neighbors of processor $i$. Each processor $i$ has an estimate of the load of
-each of its neighbors $j \in V(i)$ represented by $x_j^i(t)$. According to
-asynchronism and communication delays, this estimate may be outdated. We also
-consider that the load is described by a continuous variable.
+each of its neighbors $j \in V(i)$ denoted by $x_j^i(t)$ and this estimate
+may be outdated due to %. According to
+asynchronism and communication delays.
+%, this estimate may be outdated.
+%We also
+%consider that the load is described by a continuous variable.
+Since we deal with large {\it fine grain} parallelism of divisible loads,
+the processor's load is represented by a continuous variable for notational
+convenience.
When a processor sends a part of its load to one or some of its neighbors, the
transfer takes time to be completed. Let $s_{ij}(t)$ be the amount of load that
\label{eq.ping-pong}
\end{equation}
+\medskip
+{\bf ****** je suis arrivé ici ******** la conclusion est déjà écrite ******}
+\medskip
Some conditions are required to ensure the convergence. One of them can be
called the \emph{ping-pong} condition which specifies that:
algorithm.
-\section{Related works}
-\label{sec.related.works}
-{\bf A FAIRE}
-
-
\section{Best effort strategy}
\label{sec.besteffort}
of the new \besteffort{}, we naturally chose to compare it to this anterior
work. More precisely, we will use the algorithm~2 from
\cite{bahi+giersch+makhoul.2008.scalable} and, in the following, we will
-reference it under the name of Makhoul's.
+reference it under the name of naïve implementation of Bertsekas' load balancing algorithm. {\bf : RAPH j'ai renommé MAKHOUL en naive, il faut valider !!!! LE SOUCI, il faudrait refaire les figures}
-Here is an outline of the Makhoul's algorithm. When a given node needs to take
+Here is an outline of the \makhoul{} algorithm. When a given node needs to take
a load balancing decision, it starts by sorting its neighbors by increasing
order of their load. Then, it computes the difference between its own load, and
the load of each of its neighbors. Finally, taking the neighbors following the
Doing this, we can expect a faster convergence since nodes have a faster
information of the load they will receive, so they can take it into account.
-\FIXME{Est ce qu'on donne l'algo avec virtual load?}
+%\FIXME{Est ce qu'on donne l'algo avec virtual load?}
-With integer load, we adapt this algorithm by .... {\bf RAPH a faire}
+With integer load, this algorithm has been adapted by rounding the load value. In fact, we consider that the total amount of load is big enough and that it can be split with integer numbers.
-\FIXME{describe integer mode}
+%\FIXME{describe integer mode}
\section{Simulations}
\label{sec.simulations}
\begin{itemize}
\item if some load was received from the neighbors, get it;
\item if there is some load to send to the neighbors, send it;
-\item run some computation, whose duration is function of the current
+\item run some computations, whose duration is function of the current
load of the processor.
\end{itemize}
Practically, after the computation, the computing thread waits for a
}
\end{algorithm}
-\paragraph{}\FIXME{ajouter des détails sur la gestion de la charge virtuelle ?
- par ex, donner l'idée générale de l'implémentation. l'idée générale est déja
- décrite en section~\ref{sec.virtual-load}}
+%\paragraph{}\FIXME{ajouter des détails sur la gestion de la charge virtuelle ?
+% par ex, donner l'idée générale de l'implémentation. l'idée générale est déja
+% décrite en section~\ref{sec.virtual-load}}
\subsection{Experimental contexts}
\label{sec.exp-context}
-In order to assess the performances of our algorithms, we ran our
-simulator with various parameters, and extracted several metrics, that
-we will describe in this section.
+In order to assess the performances of our algorithms, simulations with various parameters have been achieved out, and several metrics are described in this section.
\subsubsection{Load balancing strategies}
-Several load balancing strategies were compared. We ran the experiments with
-the \besteffort{}, and with the \makhoul{} strategies. \emph{Best
+Several load balancing strategies were compared. Experiments with
+the \besteffort{}, and with the \makhoul{} strategies have been performed. \emph{Best
effort} was tested with parameter $k = 1$, $k = 2$, and $k = 4$. Secondly,
each strategy was run in its two variants: with, and without the management of
-\emph{virtual load}. Finally, we tested each configuration with \emph{real},
-and with \emph{integer} load.
+\emph{virtual load}. Finally, each configuration with \emph{real},
+and with \emph{integer} load is considered.
To summarize the different load balancing strategies, we have:
\begin{description}
number of computing iterations (2000 in our case).
Note that this convergence detection was implemented in a centralized manner.
-This is easy to do within the simulator, but it's obviously not realistic. In a
+This is easy to do within the simulator, but it is obviously not realistic. In a
real application we would have chosen a decentralized convergence detection
-algorithm, like the one described by Bahi, Contassot-Vivier, Couturier, and
-Vernier in \cite{10.1109/TPDS.2005.2}.
+algorithm, like the one described in \cite{ccl09:ij}.
\subsubsection{Platforms}
In order to show the behavior of the different strategies in different
settings, we simulated the executions on two sorts of platforms. These two
-sorts of platforms differ by their underlaid network topology. On the one hand,
+sorts of platforms differ by their network topology. On the one hand,
we have homogeneous platforms, modeled as a cluster. On the other hand, we have
heterogeneous platforms, modeled as the interconnection of a number of clusters.
-The clusters were modeled by a fixed number of computing nodes interconnected
+The clusters are modeled by a fixed number of computing nodes interconnected
through a backbone link. Each computing node has a computing power of
1~GFlop/s, and is connected to the backbone by a network link whose bandwidth is
of 125~MB/s, with a latency of 50~$\mu$s. The backbone has a network bandwidth
processor speeds were normalized, and we arbitrarily chose to fix them to
1~GFlop/s.
-Then we derived each kind of platform with four different numbers of computing
-nodes: 16, 64, 256, and 1024 nodes.
+Then each kind of platform with four different numbers of computing
+nodes: 16, 64, 256, and 1024 nodes is built in a similar way.
\subsubsection{Configurations}
The distributed processes of the application were then logically organized along
-three possible topologies: a line, a torus or an hypercube. We ran tests where
-the total load was initially on an only node (at one end for the line topology),
-and other tests where the load was initially randomly distributed across all the
-participating nodes. The total amount of load was fixed to a number of load
+three possible topologies: a line, a torus or an hypercube. Tests were performed with the total load initially on only one node (at one end for the line topology).
+Other tests for which the load was initially randomly distributed across all the
+participating nodes are also considered. The total amount of load was fixed to a number of load
units equal to 1000 times the number of node. The average load is then of 1000
load units.
-For each of the preceding configuration, we finally had to choose the
-computation and communication costs of a load unit. We chose them, such as to
+For all the previous configurations, the
+computation and communication costs of a load unit are defined. We chose them, such as to
have three different computation over communication cost ratios, and hence model
three different kinds of applications:
\begin{itemize}
This gives us as many as $2\times 4\times 3\times 2\times 3 = 144$ different
configurations.
%
-Combined with the various load balancing strategies, we had $16\times 144 =
-2304$ distinct settings to evaluate. In fact, as it will be shown later, we
-didn't run all the strategies, nor all the configurations for the bigger
-platforms with 1024 nodes, since to simulations would have run for a too long
-time.
+Combined with the various load balancing strategies, $16\times 144 =
+2304$ distinct settings have been evaluated. In fact, as it will be shown later, only configations with a maximum number of 1,024 nodes are considered in order to limit the time of experiments.
-Anyway, all these the experiments represent more than 240 hours of computing
-time.
\subsubsection{Metrics}
\label{sec.metrics}
\subsubsection{Cluster vs grid platforms}
-As mentioned earlier, we simulated the different algorithms on two kinds of
+As mentioned earlier, different algorithms have been simulated on two kinds of
physical platforms: clusters and grids. A first observation that we can make,
is that the graphs we draw from the data have a similar aspect for the two kinds
of platforms. The only noticeable difference is that the algorithms need a bit
more time to achieve the convergence on the grid platforms, than on clusters.
-Nevertheless their relative performances remain generally identical.
+Nevertheless their relative performances remain generally similar.
This suggests that the relative performances of the different strategies are not
influenced by the characteristics of the physical platform. The differences in
the convergence times can be explained by the fact that on the grid platforms,
distant sites are interconnected by links of smaller bandwidth.
-Therefore, in the following, we'll only discuss the results for the grid
+Therefore, in the following, we will only discuss the results for the grid
platforms.
\subsubsection{Main results}
On both figures, the computation/communication cost ratio is $10/1$ on the left
column, and $1/10$ on the right column. With a computation/communication cost
ratio of $1/1$ the results are just between these two extrema, and definitely
-don't give additional information, so we chose not to show them here.
+don not give additional information, so we chose not to show them here.
On each of the figures~\ref{fig.results1} and~\ref{fig.resultsN}, the results
are given for the process topology being, from top to bottom, a line, a torus or
% Taille : 10 100 très gros
-\section{Conclusion and perspectives}
+\section{Conclusion}
+\label{conclusions-remarks}
-\FIXME{conclude!}
+In this paper, we have presented a new asynchronous load balancing algorithm for non negative real numbers
+of divisible loads in distributed systems. The proposed algorithm which is called {\it best effort strategy}
+seeks greedily for loads imbalance detection and tries to achieve efficient local equilibrium threshold
+between neighbors. Our proposal is based on {\it a clairvoyant virtual loads' transfer} scheme which allows nodes to predict the future loads they will receive in the subsequent iterations.
+This leads to a noticeable speedup of the global convergence time of the load balancing process.
+Based on SimGrid simulator, we have demonstrated that, when we deal with realistic models of computation and communication, our algorithm exhibits better performances than its direct competitors from the literature. This makes it a viable choice for load balancing of both non negative real and integer divisible loads in distributed computing systems. % un peu gonflé peut être pour la dernière phrase.
\section*{Acknowledgments}
