Optimal multiprocessor task scheduling using dominance and equivalence relations

The authors propose an optimization scheme for unit-execution-time task scheduling on multiprocessors. In this scheme, dominance, semi-dominance, equivalence and semi-equivalence relations between tasks are first defined. The solution tree technique is adopted to keep track of the unfinished sub-schedules. The authors prove that when certain conditions are satisfied, a sub-schedule need not be explored further, since it cannot lead to a schedule better than some others. An algorithm that avoids generating such non-optimal schedules is presented. Then the authors conduct experiments to show the promise of the present scheme in reducing solution space. Another advantage of this scheme is its extensibility. This scheme can easily be applied to other scheduling problems by simply adding additional constraints to the original definitions of the dominance, semi-dominance, equivalence and semi-equivalence relations.