Startup-aware Dependent Task Scheduling with Bandwidth Constraints in Edge Computing

Abstract

In edge computing, applications can be scheduled in the granularity of inter-dependent tasks to proximate edge servers to achieve high performance. Before execution, the edge server must initialize the corresponding runtime environment, named task startup. However, existing studies on dependent task scheduling severely ignore bandwidth constraints during task startups, which is impractical and incurs a long startup latency. To fill in this gap, we first model the task startup process with bandwidth constraints on edge servers. Then, we formulate the dependent task scheduling problem with startup latency in heterogeneous edge computing. To efficiently generate schedules and satisfy the real-time requirements in edge computing, a novel low-complexity list scheduling algorithm integrated with cloud clone, Startup-aware Dependent Task Scheduling (SDTS), is proposed. Constrained by bandwidth and computation resources, SDTS first coordinates task startup, dependent data transmission, and task execution to optimize each task’s finish time. Then, a cloud clone for each task is deployed to utilize scalable resources and initialized runtime environments. Furthermore, task scheduling refinement is designed to release the bandwidth and computation resources consumed by redundant tasks and improve the schedule. Extensive simulations based on real-world datasets show that SDTS substantially reduces 30%-60% makespan compared with existing baselines.