Scheduling Algorithms for Grid Computing: State of the Art and Open Problems

Thanks to advances in wide-area network technologies and the low cost of computing resources, Grid computing came into being and is currently an active research area. One motivation of Grid computing is to aggregate the power of widely distributed resources, and provide non-trivial services to users. To achieve this goal, an efficient Grid scheduling system is an essential part of the Grid. Rather than covering the whole Grid scheduling area, this survey provides a review of the subject mainly from the perspective of scheduling algorithms. In this review, the challenges for Grid scheduling are identified. First, the architecture of components involved in scheduling is briefly introduced to provide an intuitive image of the Grid scheduling process. Then various Grid scheduling algorithms are discussed from different points of view, such as static vs. dynamic policies, objective functions, applications models, adaptation, QoS constraints, strategies dealing with dynamic behavior of resources, and so on. Based on a comprehensive understanding of the challenges and the state of the art of current research, some general issues worthy of further exploration are proposed.