On the Task Assignment Problem: Two New Efficient Heuristic Algorithms

We study the problem of task allocation in heterogeneous distributed systems. The objective is the minimization of the sum of processor execution and intertask communication costs. We transform the problem to a maximization one, where we try to determine and avoid large communication costs and inefficient allocations. After an appropriate graph transformation, we propose two fast algorithms, the Matching based and Max Edge heuristics, in order to consider tradeoffs between task clustering and task processor assignment. Their performance is evaluated through an experimental study where solution quality is compared with one of the best up-to-date heuristics for the problem. Results prove that algorithm Max Edge provides greatly improved solutions within short computational time even for large size instances. © 1997 Academic Press