Minimizing mean flow time with release time and deadline constraints

The problem of preemptively scheduling a task system consisting of a set of n independent tasks on one processor so as to minimize the mean flow time is considered. The goal is to find a preemptive schedule such that the mean flow time is minimized subject to the constraint that task T/sub i/ is executed within the interval between its release time and its deadline. Such a schedule, if it exists, is called an optimal schedule. It is shown that the problem of finding an optimal schedule is NP-hard. A greedy algorithm is given to find an optimal schedule for a large class of task systems.<>