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74 \title{Grid-enabled simulation of large-scale linear iterative solvers}
75 %\itshape{\journalnamelc}\footnotemark[2]}
77 \author{Charles Emile Ramamonjisoa\affil{1},
78 David Laiymani\affil{1},
79 Arnaud Giersch\affil{1},
80 Lilia Ziane Khodja\affil{2} and
81 Raphaël Couturier\affil{1}
86 Femto-ST Institute, DISC Department,
87 University of Franche-Comté,
89 Email:~\email{{charles.ramamonjisoa,david.laiymani,arnaud.giersch,raphael.couturier}@univ-fcomte.fr}\break
91 Department of Aerospace \& Mechanical Engineering,
92 Non Linear Computational Mechanics,
93 University of Liege, Liege, Belgium.
94 Email:~\email{l.zianekhodja@ulg.ac.be}
97 \begin{abstract} %% The behavior of multi-core applications is always a challenge
98 %% to predict, especially with a new architecture for which no experiment has been
99 %% performed. With some applications, it is difficult, if not impossible, to build
100 %% accurate performance models. That is why another solution is to use a simulation
101 %% tool which allows us to change many parameters of the architecture (network
102 %% bandwidth, latency, number of processors) and to simulate the execution of such
103 %% applications. The main contribution of this paper is to show that the use of a
104 %% simulation tool (here we have decided to use the SimGrid toolkit) can really
105 %% help developers to better tune their applications for a given multi-core
108 %% In this paper we focus our attention on the simulation of iterative algorithms to solve sparse linear systems on large clusters. We study the behavior of the widely used GMRES algorithm and two different variants of the Multisplitting algorithms: one using synchronous iterations and another one with asynchronous iterations.
109 %% For each algorithm we have simulated
110 %% different architecture parameters to evaluate their influence on the overall
112 %% The simulations confirm the real results previously obtained on different real multi-core architectures and also confirm the efficiency of the asynchronous Multisplitting algorithm on distant clusters compared to the synchronous GMRES algorithm.
115 The behavior of multi-core applications is always a challenge to predict, especially with a new architecture for which no experiment has been performed. With some applications, it is difficult, if not impossible, to build accurate performance models. That is why another solution is to use a simulation tool which allows us to change many parameters of the architecture (network bandwidth, latency, number of processors) and to simulate the execution of such applications.
117 In this paper we focus on the simulation of iterative algorithms to solve sparse linear systems. We study the behavior of the GMRES algorithm and two different variants of the Multisplitting algorithms: using synchronous or asynchronous iterations. For each algorithm we have simulated different architecture parameters to evaluate their influence on the overall execution time. The simulations confirm the real results previously obtained on different real multi-core architectures and also confirm the efficiency of the asynchronous Multisplitting algorithm on distant clusters compared to the GMRES algorithm.
120 %\keywords{Algorithm; distributed; iterative; asynchronous; simulation; simgrid;
122 \keywords{ Performance evaluation, Simulation, SimGrid, Synchronous and asynchronous iterations, Multisplitting algorithms}
126 \section{Introduction} The use of multi-core architectures to solve large
127 scientific problems seems to become imperative in many situations.
128 Whatever the scale of these architectures (distributed clusters, computational
129 grids, embedded multi-core,~\ldots) they are generally well adapted to execute
130 complex parallel applications operating on a large amount of data.
131 Unfortunately, users (industrials or scientists), who need such computational
132 resources, may not have an easy access to such efficient architectures. The cost
133 of using the platform and/or the cost of testing and deploying an application
134 are often very important. So, in this context it is difficult to optimize a
135 given application for a given architecture. In this way and in order to reduce
136 the access cost to these computing resources it seems very interesting to use a
137 simulation environment. The advantages are numerous: development life cycle,
138 code debugging, ability to obtain results quickly\dots{} In counterpart, the simulation results need to be consistent with the real ones.
140 In this paper we focus on a class of highly efficient parallel algorithms called
141 \emph{iterative algorithms}. The parallel scheme of iterative methods is quite
142 simple. It generally involves the division of the problem into several
143 \emph{blocks} that will be solved in parallel on multiple processing
144 units. Each processing unit has to compute an iteration to send/receive some
145 data dependencies to/from its neighbors and to iterate this process until the
146 convergence of the method. Several well-known studies demonstrate the
147 convergence of these algorithms~\cite{BT89,bahi07}. In this processing mode a
148 task cannot begin a new iteration while it has not received data dependencies
149 from its neighbors. We say that the iteration computation follows a
150 \textit{synchronous} scheme. In the asynchronous scheme a task can compute a new
151 iteration without having to wait for the data dependencies coming from its
152 neighbors. Both communication and computations are \textit{asynchronous}
153 inducing that there is no more idle time, due to synchronizations, between two
154 iterations~\cite{bcvc06:ij}. This model presents some advantages and drawbacks
155 that we detail in section~\ref{sec:asynchro} but even if the number of
156 iterations required to converge is generally greater than for the synchronous
157 case, it appears that the asynchronous iterative scheme can significantly
158 reduce overall execution times by suppressing idle times due to
159 synchronizations~(see~\cite{bahi07} for more details).
161 Nevertheless, in both cases (synchronous or asynchronous) it is very time
162 consuming to find optimal configuration and deployment requirements for a given
163 application on a given multi-core architecture. Finding good resource
164 allocations policies under varying CPU power, network speeds and loads is very
165 challenging and labor intensive~\cite{Calheiros:2011:CTM:1951445.1951450}. This
166 problematic is even more difficult for the asynchronous scheme where a small
167 parameter variation of the execution platform and of the application data can
168 lead to very different numbers of iterations to reach the converge and so to
169 very different execution times. In this challenging context we think that the
170 use of a simulation tool can greatly leverage the possibility of testing various
173 The {\bf main contribution of this paper} is to show that the use of a
174 simulation tool (i.e. the SimGrid toolkit~\cite{SimGrid}) in the context of real
175 parallel applications (i.e. large linear system solvers) can help developers to
176 better tune their application for a given multi-core architecture. To show the
177 validity of this approach we first compare the simulated execution of the Krylov
178 multisplitting algorithm with the GMRES (Generalized Minimal Residual)
179 solver~\cite{saad86} in synchronous mode. The simulation results allow us to
180 determine which method to choose given a specified multi-core architecture.
181 Moreover the obtained results on different simulated multi-core architectures
182 confirm the real results previously obtained on non simulated architectures.
183 More precisely the simulated results are in accordance (i.e. with the same order
184 of magnitude) with the works presented in~\cite{couturier15}, which show that
185 the synchronous multisplitting method is more efficient than GMRES for large
186 scale clusters. Simulated results also confirm the efficiency of the
187 asynchronous multisplitting algorithm compared to the synchronous GMRES
188 especially in case of geographically distant clusters.
190 In this way and with a simple computing architecture (a laptop) SimGrid allows us
191 to run a test campaign of a real parallel iterative applications on
192 different simulated multi-core architectures. To our knowledge, there is no
193 related work on the large-scale multi-core simulation of a real synchronous and
194 asynchronous iterative application.
196 This paper is organized as follows. Section~\ref{sec:asynchro} presents the
197 iteration model we use and more particularly the asynchronous scheme. In
198 section~\ref{sec:simgrid} the SimGrid simulation toolkit is presented.
199 Section~\ref{sec:04} details the different solvers that we use. Finally our
200 experimental results are presented in section~\ref{sec:expe} followed by some
201 concluding remarks and perspectives.
204 \section{The asynchronous iteration model and the motivations of our work}
207 Asynchronous iterative methods have been studied for many years theoritecally and
208 practically. Many methods have been considered and convergence results have been
209 proved. These methods can be used to solve, in parallel, fixed point problems
210 (i.e. problems for which the solution is $x^\star =f(x^\star)$. In practice,
211 asynchronous iterations methods can be used to solve, for example, linear and
212 non-linear systems of equations or optimization problems, interested readers are
213 invited to read~\cite{BT89,bahi07}.
215 Before using an asynchronous iterative method, the convergence must be
216 studied. Otherwise, the application is not ensure to reach the convergence. An
217 algorithm that supports both the synchronous or the asynchronous iteration model
218 requires very few modifications to be able to be executed in both variants. In
219 practice, only the communications and convergence detection are different. In
220 the synchronous mode, iterations are synchronized whereas in the asynchronous
221 one, they are not. It should be noticed that non blocking communications can be
222 used in both modes. Concerning the convergence detection, synchronous variants
223 can use a global convergence procedure which acts as a global synchronization
224 point. In the asynchronous model, the convergence detection is more tricky as
225 it must not synchronize all the processors. Interested readers can
226 consult~\cite{myBCCV05c,bahi07,ccl09:ij}.
228 The number of iterations required to reach the convergence is generally greater
229 for the asynchronous scheme (this number depends depends on the delay of the
230 messages). Note that, it is not the case in the synchronous mode where the
231 number of iterations is the same than in the sequential mode. In this way, the
232 set of the parameters of the platform (number of nodes, power of nodes,
233 inter and intra clusters bandwidth and latency, \ldots) and of the
234 application can drastically change the number of iterations required to get the
235 convergence. It follows that asynchronous iterative algorithms are difficult to
236 optimize since the financial and deployment costs on large scale multi-core
237 architecture are often very important. So, prior to delpoyment and tests it
238 seems very promising to be able to simulate the behavior of asynchronous
239 iterative algorithms. The problematic is then to show that the results produce
240 by simulation are in accordance with reality i.e. of the same order of
241 magnitude. To our knowledge, there is no study on this problematic.
245 SimGrid~\cite{SimGrid,casanova+legrand+quinson.2008.simgrid,casanova+giersch+legrand+al.2014.versatile} is a discrete event simulation framework to study the behavior of large-scale distributed computing platforms as Grids, Peer-to-Peer systems, Clouds and High Performance Computation systems. It is widely used to simulate and evaluate heuristics, prototype applications or even assess legacy MPI applications. It is still actively developed by the scientific community and distributed as an open source software.
247 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
248 % SimGrid~\cite{SimGrid,casanova+legrand+quinson.2008.simgrid,casanova+giersch+legrand+al.2014.versatile}
249 % is a simulation framework to study the behavior of large-scale distributed
250 % systems. As its name suggests, it emanates from the grid computing community,
251 % but is nowadays used to study grids, clouds, HPC or peer-to-peer systems. The
252 % early versions of SimGrid date back from 1999, but it is still actively
253 % developed and distributed as an open source software. Today, it is one of the
254 % major generic tools in the field of simulation for large-scale distributed
257 SimGrid provides several programming interfaces: MSG to simulate Concurrent
258 Sequential Processes, SimDAG to simulate DAGs of (parallel) tasks, and SMPI to
259 run real applications written in MPI~\cite{MPI}. Apart from the native C
260 interface, SimGrid provides bindings for the C++, Java, Lua and Ruby programming
261 languages. SMPI is the interface that has been used for the work described in
262 this paper. The SMPI interface implements about \np[\%]{80} of the MPI 2.0
263 standard~\cite{bedaride+degomme+genaud+al.2013.toward}, and supports
264 applications written in C or Fortran, with little or no modifications (cf Section IV - paragraph B).
266 Within SimGrid, the execution of a distributed application is simulated by a
267 single process. The application code is really executed, but some operations,
268 like communications, are intercepted, and their running time is computed
269 according to the characteristics of the simulated execution platform. The
270 description of this target platform is given as an input for the execution, by
271 means of an XML file. It describes the properties of the platform, such as
272 the computing nodes with their computing power, the interconnection links with
273 their bandwidth and latency, and the routing strategy. The scheduling of the
274 simulated processes, as well as the simulated running time of the application
275 are computed according to these properties.
277 To compute the durations of the operations in the simulated world, and to take
278 into account resource sharing (e.g. bandwidth sharing between competing
279 communications), SimGrid uses a fluid model. This allows users to run relatively fast
280 simulations, while still keeping accurate
281 results~\cite{bedaride+degomme+genaud+al.2013.toward,
282 velho+schnorr+casanova+al.2013.validity}. Moreover, depending on the
283 simulated application, SimGrid/SMPI allows to skip long lasting computations and
284 to only take their duration into account. When the real computations cannot be
285 skipped, but the results are unimportant for the simulation results, it is
286 also possible to share dynamically allocated data structures between
287 several simulated processes, and thus to reduce the whole memory consumption.
288 These two techniques can help to run simulations on a very large scale.
290 The validity of simulations with SimGrid has been asserted by several studies.
291 See, for example, \cite{velho+schnorr+casanova+al.2013.validity} and articles
292 referenced therein for the validity of the network models. Comparisons between
293 real execution of MPI applications on the one hand, and their simulation with
294 SMPI on the other hand, are presented in~\cite{guermouche+renard.2010.first,
295 clauss+stillwell+genaud+al.2011.single,
296 bedaride+degomme+genaud+al.2013.toward}. All these works conclude that
297 SimGrid is able to simulate pretty accurately the real behavior of the
299 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
301 \section{Two-stage multisplitting methods}
303 \subsection{Synchronous and asynchronous two-stage methods for sparse linear systems}
305 In this paper we focus on two-stage multisplitting methods in their both versions (synchronous and asynchronous)~\cite{Frommer92,Szyld92,Bru95}. These iterative methods are based on multisplitting methods~\cite{O'leary85,White86,Alefeld97} and use two nested iterations: the outer iteration and the inner iteration. Let us consider the following sparse linear system of $n$ equations in $\mathbb{R}$:
310 where $A$ is a sparse square and nonsingular matrix, $b$ is the right-hand side and $x$ is the solution of the system. Our work in this paper is restricted to the block Jacobi splitting method. This approach of multisplitting consists in partitioning the matrix $A$ into $L$ horizontal band matrices of order $\frac{n}{L}\times n$ without overlapping (i.e. sub-vectors $\{x_\ell\}_{1\leq\ell\leq L}$ are disjoint). Two-stage multisplitting methods solve the linear system~(\ref{eq:01}) iteratively as follows:
312 x_\ell^{k+1} = A_{\ell\ell}^{-1}(b_\ell - \displaystyle\sum^{L}_{\substack{m=1\\m\neq\ell}}{A_{\ell m}x^k_m}),\mbox{~for~}\ell=1,\ldots,L\mbox{~and~}k=1,2,3,\ldots
315 where $x_\ell$ are sub-vectors of the solution $x$, $b_\ell$ are the sub-vectors of the right-hand side $b$, and $A_{\ell\ell}$ and $A_{\ell m}$ are diagonal and off-diagonal blocks of matrix $A$ respectively. The iterations of these methods can naturally be computed in parallel such that each processor or cluster of processors is responsible for solving one splitting as a linear sub-system:
317 A_{\ell\ell} x_\ell = c_\ell,\mbox{~for~}\ell=1,\ldots,L,
320 where right-hand sides $c_\ell=b_\ell-\sum_{m\neq\ell}A_{\ell m}x_m$ are computed using the shared vectors $x_m$. In this paper, we use the well-known iterative method GMRES ({\it Generalized Minimal RESidual})~\cite{saad86} as an inner iteration to approximate the solutions of the different splittings arising from the block Jacobi multisplitting of matrix $A$. The algorithm in Figure~\ref{alg:01} shows the main key points of our block Jacobi two-stage method executed by a cluster of processors. In line~\ref{solve}, the linear sub-system~(\ref{eq:03}) is solved in parallel using GMRES method where $\MIG$ and $\TOLG$ are the maximum number of inner iterations and the tolerance threshold for GMRES respectively. The convergence of the two-stage multisplitting methods, based on synchronous or asynchronous iterations, has been studied by many authors for example~\cite{Bru95,bahi07}.
323 %\begin{algorithm}[t]
324 %\caption{Block Jacobi two-stage multisplitting method}
325 \begin{algorithmic}[1]
326 \Input $A_\ell$ (sparse matrix), $b_\ell$ (right-hand side)
327 \Output $x_\ell$ (solution vector)\vspace{0.2cm}
328 \State Set the initial guess $x^0$
329 \For {$k=1,2,3,\ldots$ until convergence}
330 \State $c_\ell=b_\ell-\sum_{m\neq\ell}A_{\ell m}x_m^{k-1}$
331 \State $x^k_\ell=Solve_{gmres}(A_{\ell\ell},c_\ell,x^{k-1}_\ell,\MIG,\TOLG)$\label{solve}
332 \State Send $x_\ell^k$ to neighboring clusters\label{send}
333 \State Receive $\{x_m^k\}_{m\neq\ell}$ from neighboring clusters\label{recv}
336 \caption{Block Jacobi two-stage multisplitting method}
341 In this paper, we propose two algorithms of two-stage multisplitting methods. The first algorithm is based on the asynchronous model which allows communications to be overlapped by computations and reduces the idle times resulting from the synchronizations. So in the asynchronous mode, our two-stage algorithm uses asynchronous outer iterations and asynchronous communications between clusters. The communications (i.e. lines~\ref{send} and~\ref{recv} in Figure~\ref{alg:01}) are performed by message passing using MPI non-blocking communication routines. The convergence of the asynchronous iterations is detected when all clusters have locally converged:
343 k\geq\MIM\mbox{~or~}\|x_\ell^{k+1}-x_\ell^k\|_{\infty }\leq\TOLM,
346 where $\MIM$ is the maximum number of outer iterations and $\TOLM$ is the tolerance threshold for the two-stage algorithm.
348 The second two-stage algorithm is based on synchronous outer iterations. We propose to use the Krylov iteration based on residual minimization to improve the slow convergence of the multisplitting methods. In this case, a $n\times s$ matrix $S$ is set using solutions issued from the inner iteration:
350 S=[x^1,x^2,\ldots,x^s],~s\ll n.
353 At each $s$ outer iterations, the algorithm computes a new approximation $\tilde{x}=S\alpha$ which minimizes the residual:
355 \min_{\alpha\in\mathbb{R}^s}{\|b-AS\alpha\|_2}.
358 The algorithm in Figure~\ref{alg:02} includes the procedure of the residual minimization and the outer iteration is restarted with a new approximation $\tilde{x}$ at every $s$ iterations. The least-squares problem~(\ref{eq:06}) is solved in parallel by all clusters using CGLS method~\cite{Hestenes52} such that $\MIC$ is the maximum number of iterations and $\TOLC$ is the tolerance threshold for this method (line~\ref{cgls} in Figure~\ref{alg:02}).
361 %\begin{algorithm}[t]
362 %\caption{Krylov two-stage method using block Jacobi multisplitting}
363 \begin{algorithmic}[1]
364 \Input $A_\ell$ (sparse matrix), $b_\ell$ (right-hand side)
365 \Output $x_\ell$ (solution vector)\vspace{0.2cm}
366 \State Set the initial guess $x^0$
367 \For {$k=1,2,3,\ldots$ until convergence}
368 \State $c_\ell=b_\ell-\sum_{m\neq\ell}A_{\ell m}x_m^{k-1}$
369 \State $x^k_\ell=Solve_{gmres}(A_{\ell\ell},c_\ell,x^{k-1}_\ell,\MIG,\TOLG)$
370 \State $S_{\ell,k\mod s}=x_\ell^k$
372 \State $\alpha = Solve_{cgls}(AS,b,\MIC,\TOLC)$\label{cgls}
373 \State $\tilde{x_\ell}=S_\ell\alpha$
374 \State Send $\tilde{x_\ell}$ to neighboring clusters
376 \State Send $x_\ell^k$ to neighboring clusters
378 \State Receive $\{x_m^k\}_{m\neq\ell}$ from neighboring clusters
381 \caption{Krylov two-stage method using block Jacobi multisplitting}
386 \subsection{Simulation of the two-stage methods using SimGrid toolkit}
389 One of our objectives when simulating the application in Simgrid is, as in real
390 life, to get accurate results (solutions of the problem) but also to ensure the
391 test reproducibility under the same conditions. According to our experience,
392 very few modifications are required to adapt a MPI program for the Simgrid
393 simulator using SMPI (Simulator MPI). The first modification is to include SMPI
394 libraries and related header files (smpi.h). The second modification is to
395 suppress all global variables by replacing them with local variables or using a
396 Simgrid selector called "runtime automatic switching"
397 (smpi/privatize\_global\_variables). Indeed, global variables can generate side
398 effects on runtime between the threads running in the same process and generated by
399 Simgrid to simulate the grid environment.
401 %\RC{On vire cette phrase ?} \RCE {Si c'est la phrase d'avant sur les threads, je pense qu'on peut la retenir car c'est l'explication du pourquoi Simgrid n'aime pas les variables globales. Si c'est pas bien dit, on peut la reformuler. Si c'est la phrase ci-apres, effectivement, on peut la virer si elle preterais a discussion}The
402 %last modification on the MPI program pointed out for some cases, the review of
403 %the sequence of the MPI\_Isend, MPI\_Irecv and MPI\_Waitall instructions which
404 %might cause an infinite loop.
407 \paragraph{Simgrid Simulator parameters}
408 \ \\ \noindent Before running a Simgrid benchmark, many parameters for the
409 computation platform must be defined. For our experiments, we consider platforms
410 in which several clusters are geographically distant, so there are intra and
411 inter-cluster communications. In the following, these parameters are described:
414 \item hostfile: hosts description file.
415 \item platform: file describing the platform architecture: clusters (CPU power,
416 \dots{}), intra cluster network description, inter cluster network (bandwidth bw,
417 latency lat, \dots{}).
418 \item archi : grid computational description (number of clusters, number of
419 nodes/processors for each cluster).
422 In addition, the following arguments are given to the programs at runtime:
425 \item maximum number of inner iterations $\MIG$ and outer iterations $\MIM$,
426 \item inner precision $\TOLG$ and outer precision $\TOLM$,
427 \item matrix sizes of the 3D Poisson problem: N$_{x}$, N$_{y}$ and N$_{z}$ on axis $x$, $y$ and $z$ respectively,
428 \item matrix diagonal value is fixed to $6.0$ for synchronous Krylov multisplitting experiments and $6.2$ for asynchronous block Jacobi experiments,
429 \item matrix off-diagonal value is fixed to $-1.0$,
430 \item number of vectors in matrix $S$ (i.e. value of $s$),
431 \item maximum number of iterations $\MIC$ and precision $\TOLC$ for CGLS method,
432 \item maximum number of iterations and precision for the classical GMRES method,
433 \item maximum number of restarts for the Arnorldi process in GMRES method,
434 \item execution mode: synchronous or asynchronous.
437 It should also be noticed that both solvers have been executed with the Simgrid selector \texttt{-cfg=smpi/running\_power} which determines the computational power (here 19GFlops) of the simulator host machine.
439 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
440 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
442 \section{Experimental Results}
445 In this section, experiments for both Multisplitting algorithms are reported. First the 3D Poisson problem used in our experiments is described.
447 \subsection{The 3D Poisson problem}
450 We use our two-stage algorithms to solve the well-known Poisson problem $\nabla^2\phi=f$~\cite{Polyanin01}. In three-dimensional Cartesian coordinates in $\mathbb{R}^3$, the problem takes the following form:
452 \frac{\partial^2}{\partial x^2}\phi(x,y,z)+\frac{\partial^2}{\partial y^2}\phi(x,y,z)+\frac{\partial^2}{\partial z^2}\phi(x,y,z)=f(x,y,z)\mbox{~in the domain~}\Omega
457 \phi(x,y,z)=0\mbox{~on the boundary~}\partial\Omega
459 where the real-valued function $\phi(x,y,z)$ is the solution sought, $f(x,y,z)$ is a known function and $\Omega=[0,1]^3$. The 3D discretization of the Laplace operator $\nabla^2$ with the finite difference scheme includes 7 points stencil on the computational grid. The numerical approximation of the Poisson problem on three-dimensional grid is repeatedly computed as $\phi=\phi^\star$ such that:
462 \phi^\star(x,y,z)=&\frac{1}{6}(\phi(x-h,y,z)+\phi(x,y-h,z)+\phi(x,y,z-h)\\&+\phi(x+h,y,z)+\phi(x,y+h,z)+\phi(x,y,z+h)\\&-h^2f(x,y,z))
466 until convergence where $h$ is the grid spacing between two adjacent elements in the 3D computational grid.
468 In the parallel context, the 3D Poisson problem is partitioned into $L\times p$ sub-problems such that $L$ is the number of clusters and $p$ is the number of processors in each cluster. We apply the three-dimensional partitioning instead of the row-by-row one in order to reduce the size of the data shared at the sub-problems boundaries. In this case, each processor is in charge of parallelepipedic block of the problem and has at most six neighbors in the same cluster or in distant clusters with which it shares data at boundaries.
470 \subsection{Study setup and simulation methodology}
472 First, to conduct our study, we propose the following methodology
473 which can be reused for any grid-enabled applications.\\
475 \textbf{Step 1}: Choose with the end users the class of algorithms or
476 the application to be tested. Numerical parallel iterative algorithms
477 have been chosen for the study in this paper. \\
479 \textbf{Step 2}: Collect the software materials needed for the experimentation.
480 In our case, we have two variants algorithms for the resolution of the
481 3D-Poisson problem: (1) using the classical GMRES; (2) and the Multisplitting
482 method. In addition, the Simgrid simulator has been chosen to simulate the
483 behaviors of the distributed applications. Simgrid is running in a virtual
484 machine on a simple laptop. \\
486 \textbf{Step 3}: Fix the criteria which will be used for the future
487 results comparison and analysis. In the scope of this study, we retain
488 on the one hand the algorithm execution mode (synchronous and asynchronous)
489 and on the other hand the execution time and the number of iterations to reach the convergence. \\
491 \textbf{Step 4 }: Set up the different grid testbed environments that will be
492 simulated in the simulator tool to run the program. The following architecture
493 has been configured in Simgrid : 2x16, 4x8, 4x16, 8x8 and 2x50. The first number
494 represents the number of clusters in the grid and the second number represents
495 the number of hosts (processors/cores) in each cluster. The network has been
496 designed to operate with a bandwidth equals to 10Gbits (resp. 1Gbits/s) and a
497 latency of 8.10$^{-6}$ seconds (resp. 5.10$^{-5}$) for the intra-clusters links
498 (resp. inter-clusters backbone links). \\
500 \textbf{Step 5}: Conduct an extensive and comprehensive testings
501 within these configurations by varying the key parameters, especially
502 the CPU power capacity, the network parameters and also the size of the
505 \textbf{Step 6} : Collect and analyze the output results.
507 \subsection{Factors impacting distributed applications performance in
510 When running a distributed application in a computational grid, many factors may
511 have a strong impact on the performance. First of all, the architecture of the
512 grid itself can obviously influence the performance results of the program. The
513 performance gain might be important theoretically when the number of clusters
514 and/or the number of nodes (processors/cores) in each individual cluster
517 Another important factor impacting the overall performance of the application
518 is the network configuration. Two main network parameters can modify drastically
519 the program output results:
521 \item the network bandwidth (bw=bits/s) also known as "the data-carrying
522 capacity" of the network is defined as the maximum of data that can transit
523 from one point to another in a unit of time.
524 \item the network latency (lat : microsecond) defined as the delay from the
525 start time to send a simple data from a source to a destination.
527 Upon the network characteristics, another impacting factor is the volume of data exchanged between the nodes in the cluster
528 and between distant clusters. This parameter is application dependent.
530 In a grid environment, it is common to distinguish, on the one hand, the
531 "intra-network" which refers to the links between nodes within a cluster and
532 on the other hand, the "inter-network" which is the backbone link between
533 clusters. In practice, these two networks have different speeds.
534 The intra-network generally works like a high speed local network with a
535 high bandwith and very low latency. In opposite, the inter-network connects
536 clusters sometime via heterogeneous networks components throuth internet with
537 a lower speed. The network between distant clusters might be a bottleneck
538 for the global performance of the application.
540 \subsection{Comparison of GMRES and Krylov Multisplitting algorithms in synchronous mode}
542 In the scope of this paper, our first objective is to analyze when the Krylov
543 Multisplitting method has better performance than the classical GMRES
544 method. With a synchronous iterative method, better performance means a
545 smaller number of iterations and execution time before reaching the convergence.
546 For a systematic study, the experiments should figure out that, for various
547 grid parameters values, the simulator will confirm the targeted outcomes,
548 particularly for poor and slow networks, focusing on the impact on the
549 communication performance on the chosen class of algorithm.
551 The following paragraphs present the test conditions, the output results
555 \subsubsection{Execution of the algorithms on various computational grid
556 architectures and scaling up the input matrix size}
562 \begin{tabular}{r c }
564 Grid Architecture & 2x16, 4x8, 4x16 and 8x8\\ %\hline
565 Network & N2 : bw=1Gbits/s - lat=5.10$^{-5}$ \\ %\hline
566 Input matrix size & N$_{x}$ x N$_{y}$ x N$_{z}$ =150 x 150 x 150\\ %\hline
567 - & N$_{x}$ x N$_{y}$ x N$_{z}$ =170 x 170 x 170 \\ \hline
569 \caption{Test conditions: various grid configurations with the input matix size N$_{x}$=150 or N$_{x}$=170 \RC{N2 n'est pas défini..}\RC{Nx est défini, Ny? Nz?}
570 \AG{La lettre 'x' n'est pas le symbole de la multiplication. Utiliser \texttt{\textbackslash times}. Idem dans le texte, les figures, etc.}}
579 In this section, we analyze the performance of algorithms running on various
580 grid configurations (2x16, 4x8, 4x16 and 8x8). First, the results in Figure~\ref{fig:01}
581 show for all grid configurations the non-variation of the number of iterations of
582 classical GMRES for a given input matrix size; it is not the case for the
583 multisplitting method.
585 \RC{CE attention tu n'as pas mis de label dans tes figures, donc c'est le bordel, j'en mets mais vérifie...}
586 \RC{Les légendes ne sont pas explicites...}
591 \includegraphics[width=100mm]{cluster_x_nodes_nx_150_and_nx_170.pdf}
593 \caption{Various grid configurations with the input matrix size N$_{x}$=150 and N$_{x}$=170\RC{idem}
594 \AG{Utiliser le point comme séparateur décimal et non la virgule. Idem dans les autres figures.}}
599 The execution times between the two algorithms is significant with different
600 grid architectures, even with the same number of processors (for example, 2x16
601 and 4x8). We can observ the low sensitivity of the Krylov multisplitting method
602 (compared with the classical GMRES) when scaling up the number of the processors
603 in the grid: in average, the GMRES (resp. Multisplitting) algorithm performs
604 $40\%$ better (resp. $48\%$) when running from 2x16=32 to 8x8=64 processors. \RC{pas très clair, c'est pas précis de dire qu'un algo perform mieux qu'un autre, selon quel critère?}
606 \subsubsection{Running on two different inter-clusters network speeds \\}
610 \begin{tabular}{r c }
612 Grid Architecture & 2x16, 4x8\\ %\hline
613 Network & N1 : bw=10Gbs-lat=8.10$^{-6}$ \\ %\hline
614 - & N2 : bw=1Gbs-lat=5.10$^{-5}$ \\
615 Input matrix size & N$_{x}$ x N$_{y}$ x N$_{z}$ =150 x 150 x 150\\ \hline
617 \caption{Test conditions: grid 2x16 and 4x8 with networks N1 vs N2}
622 These experiments compare the behavior of the algorithms running first on a
623 speed inter-cluster network (N1) and also on a less performant network (N2). \RC{Il faut définir cela avant...}
624 Figure~\ref{fig:02} shows that end users will reduce the execution time
625 for both algorithms when using a grid architecture like 4x16 or 8x8: the reduction is about $2$. The results depict also that when
626 the network speed drops down (variation of 12.5\%), the difference between the two Multisplitting algorithms execution times can reach more than 25\%.
630 %\begin{wrapfigure}{l}{100mm}
633 \includegraphics[width=100mm]{cluster_x_nodes_n1_x_n2.pdf}
634 \caption{Grid 2x16 and 4x8 with networks N1 vs N2
635 \AG{\np{8E-6}, \np{5E-6} au lieu de 8E-6, 5E-6}}
641 \subsubsection{Network latency impacts on performance}
645 \begin{tabular}{r c }
647 Grid Architecture & 2x16\\ %\hline
648 Network & N1 : bw=1Gbs \\ %\hline
649 Input matrix size & N$_{x}$ x N$_{y}$ x N$_{z}$ =150 x 150 x 150\\ \hline
651 \caption{Test conditions: network latency impacts}
659 \includegraphics[width=100mm]{network_latency_impact_on_execution_time.pdf}
660 \caption{Network latency impacts on execution time
666 According to the results of Figure~\ref{fig:03}, a degradation of the network
667 latency from $8.10^{-6}$ to $6.10^{-5}$ implies an absolute time increase of
668 more than $75\%$ (resp. $82\%$) of the execution for the classical GMRES
669 (resp. Krylov multisplitting) algorithm. In addition, it appears that the
670 Krylov multisplitting method tolerates more the network latency variation with a
671 less rate increase of the execution time.\RC{Les 2 précédentes phrases me
672 semblent en contradiction....} Consequently, in the worst case ($lat=6.10^{-5
673 }$), the execution time for GMRES is almost the double than the time of the
674 Krylov multisplitting, even though, the performance was on the same order of
675 magnitude with a latency of $8.10^{-6}$.
677 \subsubsection{Network bandwidth impacts on performance}
681 \begin{tabular}{r c }
683 Grid Architecture & 2x16\\ %\hline
684 Network & N1 : bw=1Gbs - lat=5.10$^{-5}$ \\ %\hline
685 Input matrix size & N$_{x}$ x N$_{y}$ x N$_{z}$ =150 x 150 x 150\\ \hline \\
687 \caption{Test conditions: Network bandwidth impacts\RC{Qu'est ce qui varie ici? Il n'y a pas de variation dans le tableau}}
694 \includegraphics[width=100mm]{network_bandwith_impact_on_execution_time.pdf}
695 \caption{Network bandwith impacts on execution time
696 \AG{``Execution time'' avec un 't' minuscule}. Idem autres figures.}
700 The results of increasing the network bandwidth show the improvement of the
701 performance for both algorithms by reducing the execution time (see
702 Figure~\ref{fig:04}). However, in this case, the Krylov multisplitting method
703 presents a better performance in the considered bandwidth interval with a gain
704 of $40\%$ which is only around $24\%$ for the classical GMRES.
706 \subsubsection{Input matrix size impacts on performance}
710 \begin{tabular}{r c }
712 Grid Architecture & 4x8\\ %\hline
713 Network & N2 : bw=1Gbs - lat=5.10$^{-5}$ \\
714 Input matrix size & N$_{x}$ = From 40 to 200\\ \hline
716 \caption{Test conditions: Input matrix size impacts}
723 \includegraphics[width=100mm]{pb_size_impact_on_execution_time.pdf}
724 \caption{Problem size impacts on execution time}
728 In these experiments, the input matrix size has been set from $N_{x} = N_{y}
729 = N_{z} = 40$ to $200$ side elements that is from $40^{3} = 64.000$ to $200^{3}
730 = 8,000,000$ points. Obviously, as shown in Figure~\ref{fig:05}, the execution
731 time for both algorithms increases when the input matrix size also increases.
732 But the interesting results are:
734 \item the drastic increase ($10$ times) of the number of iterations needed to
735 reach the convergence for the classical GMRES algorithm when the matrix size
736 go beyond $N_{x}=150$; \RC{C'est toujours pas clair... ok le nommbre d'itérations est 10 fois plus long mais la suite de la phrase ne veut rien dire}
737 \item the classical GMRES execution time is almost the double for $N_{x}=140$
738 compared with the Krylov multisplitting method.
741 These findings may help a lot end users to setup the best and the optimal
742 targeted environment for the application deployment when focusing on the problem
743 size scale up. It should be noticed that the same test has been done with the
744 grid 2x16 leading to the same conclusion.
746 \subsubsection{CPU Power impacts on performance}
750 \begin{tabular}{r c }
752 Grid architecture & 2x16\\ %\hline
753 Network & N2 : bw=1Gbs - lat=5.10$^{-5}$ \\ %\hline
754 Input matrix size & N$_{x}$ = 150 x 150 x 150\\ \hline
756 \caption{Test conditions: CPU Power impacts}
762 \includegraphics[width=100mm]{cpu_power_impact_on_execution_time.pdf}
763 \caption{CPU Power impacts on execution time}
767 Using the Simgrid simulator flexibility, we have tried to determine the impact
768 on the algorithms performance in varying the CPU power of the clusters nodes
769 from $1$ to $19$ GFlops. The outputs depicted in Figure~\ref{fig:06} confirm the
770 performance gain, around $95\%$ for both of the two methods, after adding more
773 %\DL{il faut une conclusion sur ces tests : ils confirment les résultats déjà
774 %obtenus en grandeur réelle. Donc c'est une aide précieuse pour les dev. Pas
775 %besoin de déployer sur une archi réelle}
777 To conclude these series of experiments, with SimGrid we have been able to make
778 many simulations with many parameters variations. Doing all these experiments
779 with a real platform is most of the time not possible. Moreover the behavior of
780 both GMRES and Krylov multisplitting methods is in accordance with larger real
781 executions on large scale supercomputer~\cite{couturier15}.
784 \subsection{Comparing GMRES in native synchronous mode and the multisplitting algorithm in asynchronous mode}
786 The previous paragraphs put in evidence the interests to simulate the behavior
787 of the application before any deployment in a real environment. In this
788 section, following the same previous methodology, our goal is to compare the
789 efficiency of the multisplitting method in \textit{ asynchronous mode} compared with the
790 classical GMRES in \textit{synchronous mode}.
792 The interest of using an asynchronous algorithm is that there is no more
793 synchronization. With geographically distant clusters, this may be essential.
794 In this case, each processor can compute its iteration freely without any
795 synchronization with the other processors. Thus, the asynchronous may
796 theoretically reduce the overall execution time and can improve the algorithm
799 \RC{la phrase suivante est bizarre, je ne comprends pas pourquoi elle vient ici}
800 In this section, Simgrid simulator tool has been successfully used to show
801 the efficiency of the multisplitting in asynchronous mode and to find the best
802 combination of the grid resources (CPU, Network, input matrix size, \ldots ) to
803 get the highest \textit{"relative gain"} (exec\_time$_{GMRES}$ /
804 exec\_time$_{multisplitting}$) in comparison with the classical GMRES time.
807 The test conditions are summarized in the table~\ref{tab:07}: \\
811 \begin{tabular}{r c }
813 Grid Architecture & 2x50 totaling 100 processors\\ %\hline
814 Processors Power & 1 GFlops to 1.5 GFlops\\
815 Intra-Network & bw=1.25 Gbits - lat=5.10$^{-5}$ \\ %\hline
816 Inter-Network & bw=5 Mbits - lat=2.10$^{-2}$\\
817 Input matrix size & N$_{x}$ = From 62 to 150\\ %\hline
818 Residual error precision & 10$^{-5}$ to 10$^{-9}$\\ \hline \\
820 \caption{Test conditions: GMRES in synchronous mode vs Krylov Multisplitting in asynchronous mode}
824 Again, comprehensive and extensive tests have been conducted with different
825 parameters as the CPU power, the network parameters (bandwidth and latency)
826 and with different problem size. The relative gains greater than $1$ between the
827 two algorithms have been captured after each step of the test. In
828 Table~\ref{tab:08} are reported the best grid configurations allowing
829 the multisplitting method to be more than $2.5$ times faster than the
830 classical GMRES. These experiments also show the relative tolerance of the
831 multisplitting algorithm when using a low speed network as usually observed with
832 geographically distant clusters through the internet.
834 % use the same column width for the following three tables
835 \newlength{\mytablew}\settowidth{\mytablew}{\footnotesize\np{E-11}}
836 \newenvironment{mytable}[1]{% #1: number of columns for data
837 \renewcommand{\arraystretch}{1.3}%
838 \begin{tabular}{|>{\bfseries}r%
839 |*{#1}{>{\centering\arraybackslash}p{\mytablew}|}}}{%
846 % \caption{Relative gain of the multisplitting algorithm compared with the classical GMRES}
851 & 5 & 5 & 5 & 5 & 5 & 50 & 50 & 50 & 50 & 50 \\
854 & 20 & 20 & 20 & 20 & 20 & 20 & 20 & 20 & 20 & 20 \\
857 & 1 & 1 & 1 & 1.5 & 1.5 & 1.5 & 1.5 & 1 & 1.5 & 1.5 \\
860 & 62 & 62 & 62 & 100 & 100 & 110 & 120 & 130 & 140 & 150 \\
863 & \np{E-5} & \np{E-8} & \np{E-9} & \np{E-11} & \np{E-11} & \np{E-11} & \np{E-11} & \np{E-11} & \np{E-11} & \np{E-11}\\
866 & 2.52 & 2.55 & 2.52 & 2.57 & 2.54 & 2.53 & 2.51 & 2.58 & 2.55 & 2.54 \\
870 \caption{Relative gain of the multisplitting algorithm compared with the classical GMRES}
877 In this paper we have presented the simulation of the execution of three
878 different parallel solvers on some multi-core architectures. We have show that
879 the SimGrid toolkit is an interesting simulation tool that has allowed us to
880 determine which method to choose given a specified multi-core architecture.
881 Moreover the simulated results are in accordance (i.e. with the same order of
882 magnitude) with the works presented in~\cite{couturier15}. Simulated results
883 also confirm the efficiency of the asynchronous multisplitting
884 algorithm compared to the synchronous GMRES especially in case of
885 geographically distant clusters.
887 These results are important since it is very time consuming to find optimal
888 configuration and deployment requirements for a given application on a given
889 multi-core architecture. Finding good resource allocations policies under
890 varying CPU power, network speeds and loads is very challenging and labor
891 intensive. This problematic is even more difficult for the asynchronous
892 scheme where a small parameter variation of the execution platform and of the
893 application data can lead to very different numbers of iterations to reach the
894 converge and so to very different execution times.
901 %\section*{Acknowledgment}
903 This work is partially funded by the Labex ACTION program (contract ANR-11-LABX-01-01).
905 \bibliographystyle{wileyj}
906 \bibliography{biblio}
915 %%% ispell-local-dictionary: "american"