The English Auction Method for Scheduling Jobs in a Distributed Network of Supercomputer Centers

Abstract

The article describes the problem of scheduling jobs with absolute priorities in a geographically distributed network of supercomputer centers (GDN). In this case English auction method can be efficiently applied. Classic market model considers computational resources as the goods (subject of auction trades), and resources’ owners act as sellers. Users act as buyers who participate in the auction on purpose to purchase computing resources for the execution of their jobs. This model assumes that customers have certain budgets in nominal or real money. The priority of the job is actually determined by the price, which the user can pay to finish the job by a certain time. The GDN model investigated by the authors differs from the known ones in that the jobs priorities are absolute and assigned according to uniform rules. The main goal is the earliest execution of high-priority jobs. In this case, the concept of the user’s budget becomes meaningless, and the classic auction models do not work. The authors propose a new approach where the jobs act as the goods and buyers are resource owners who paying for jobs with available idle supercomputing resources. For this approach, the authors investigate the features and characteristics of English auction, as the most preferred method for scheduling jobs with absolute priorities in GDN.