On the performance of nearest-neighbors load balancing algorithms in parallel systems

Abstract

DASUD (Diffusion Algorithm Searching Unbalanced Domains) is a totally distributed load-balancing algorithm which belongs to the nearest-neighbors class. DASUD detects unbalanced domains (a processor and its immediate neighbors) and corrects this situation by allowing load movements between non-connected processors. DASUD has been evaluated by comparison with two well-known nearest-neighbors load balancing strategies, namely, the GDE (Generalized Dimension Exchange) and the SID (Sender Initiated Diffusion) by considering a large set of initial load distributions. These distributions were applied to ring, tents and hypercube topologies, and the number of processors ranged from 8 to 128. From these experiments we have observed that DASUD outperforms the other strategies used in the comparison as it provides the best trade-off between the balance degree obtained at the final state and the number of iterations required to reach this state.