University Politehnica of Bucharest

Faculty of Automatic Control and Computers

Computer Science Department

September 2014

PhD Project Proposal

MAS-CC: Multi-constraints and Adaptive Workflow Scheduling in

Cloud Computing
Mihaela-Ctlina Ni
Today, almost everyone is connected to the Internet and uses different Cloud solutions to store, deliver
and process data. Cloud computing assembles large networks of virtualized services such as hardware
and software resources. The use of Cloud resources by end-users is made in an asynchronous way and
in many cases using mobile devices over different types of networks. Interoperability for such type of
systems with the main aim to ensure dependability and resilience is one of the major challenges for
heterogeneous distributed systems.
While Cloud computing optimizes the use of resources, it does not (yet) provide an effective solution
for processing complex applications described by workflows. Some example of such applications is
hosting multimedia content-driven applications, and process tsunami (often in real-time) of content
from heterogeneous sources such as surveillance cameras, medical imaging devices, land cover
analysis [2] etc. The current need is an optimal and validated middleware framework and that can
support end-to-end lifecycle operations of different multimedia content-driven applications on more
standard Cloud infrastructures [7].
The doctoral project proposed here will take a novel approach of scheduling algorithms aiming to
develop an autonomic mechanism to schedule users tasks and allocate resource dynamically, such that
some cost function is optimized. Even if optimal centralized algorithms are NP-Complete,
decentralized algorithms can approach the optimal performance using only local knowledge about the
infrastructure. For real-time interaction, the local near-optimal solution can be obtained faster than the
exact solution and the effect is representative. The project is based on the following assumptions:
The challenges came from dynamic systems affected by faults [1]. In this context of variety, the
stimulating relationship between users, who require better computing services, and providers, who
discover new ways to satisfy them, is the motivation to introduce future trends oriented on self-*
capabilities.
For multimedia applications, real-time scheduling and processing are done on reliable and unreliable
resources [8].
The main challenges are to ensure deadlines (very important in real-time interaction [5]), budget (payper-use Cloud model), energy-consumption (battery saving for mobile devices) [6] and QoS (to
guarantee SLA [3][4]) for complex workflow applications.
The main objectives of MAS-CC project are as follows:
A critical analysis of existing solutions and identification of major possible hybrid solutions. This
objective will be finalized with a clear and global image of the existing solutions, together with
advantages and disadvantages for each one;
A proposed model: adaptive workflow scheduling with multi-constraints, from both users (deadline,

budget) and providers (energy awareness);

Validation through simulation in the first phase and through real applications in the second phase. In
this objective we want to identify real and useful applications in order to show the benefits of the
proposed model to the end-users.
The project is grounded in the fields of ubiquitous computing and heterogeneous distributed systems
that provide the essential fundamental and technical background for multimedia applications. The study
of the ubiquitous Cloud is at the confluence between several research domains: static and dynamic
distributed systems, fault tolerance, attack tolerance and verification. Another set of challenges comes
from the mobile devices. New solutions are needed for energy efficient ways of optimizing the
partitioning of application functions across Cloud and devices, including local/remote storage and
processing, security, and adaptive monitoring of network conditions to optimize network and device
costs against user-perceived performance of the Cloud application.
The evaluation of proposed algorithms and methods will be validated through simulation for
comparison with other similar solutions (to highlights the performance of proposed solution) and in real
environments for real scenarios. For example, Imagine a family celebrating an event. They would like
to have something to remember but also to share with relatives and friends who could not make it to the
event. So they would want to be able to share seamlessly all recordings from the event. They would
need safe, interoperable means to do that across all their devices, while maintaining their privacy. They
also wish to store in a reliable digital place.
The originality of the project arises from the way we deal with the uncertainty posed by application
workloads (streaming vs. static content), resources capacity demands (bandwidth, memory, storage, and
processors), failures (failure of a network link), access patterns (number of end-users and location),
different device types (mobile phone, laptop, and smart TV), indexing needs (text and content based),
and different network types (wired and wireless).
References
[1] Adrian Bosilca, Mihaela-Catalina Nita, Florin Pop, and Valentin Cristea, "Cloud Simulation under Fault Constraints" In
Intelligent Computer Communication and Processing (ICCP), 2014 IEEE International Conference on, pp. 341-348. IEEE,
2012.
[2] Mihaela-Catalina Nita, Florica Moldoveanu, and Victor Asavei. "Change detection algorithm for land cover in grid
systems." In Intelligent Computer Communication and Processing (ICCP), 2013 IEEE International Conference on, pp.
339-342. IEEE, 2013.
[3] Mihaela-Catalina Nita, Cristian Chilipirea, Ciprian Dobre, and Florin Pop. "A SLA-based method for big-data transfers with
multi-criteria optimization constraints for IaaS." In Roedunet International Conference (RoEduNet), 2013 11th, pp. 1-6.
IEEE, 2013.
[4] Mihaela-Catalina Nita, Florin Pop, and Valentin Cristea. "Scheduling Service with SLA assurance for
private cloud systems." In Intelligent Computer Communication and Processing (ICCP), 2012 IEEE International
Conference on, pp. 331-334. IEEE, 2012.
[5] Saeid Abrishami, Mahmoud Naghibzadeh, Dick H.J. Epema, Deadline-constrained workflow scheduling
algorithms for Infrastructure as a Service Clouds, Future Generation Computer Systems, Volume 29, Issue 1,
January 2013, Pages 158-169, ISSN 0167-739X
[6] Juan J. Durillo, Vlad Nae, Radu Prodan, Multi-objective energy-efficient workflow scheduling using listbased heuristics, Future Generation Computer Systems, Volume 36, July 2014, Pages 221-236, ISSN 0167-739X
[7] Hamid Mohammadi Fard, Radu Prodan, Thomas Fahringer, Multi-objective list scheduling of workflow
applications in distributed computing infrastructures, Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing, Volume 74,
Issue 3, March 2014, Pages 2152-2165, ISSN 0743-7315

[8] Sanghyuk Park, Jai-Hoon Kim, Geoffrey Fox, Effective real-time scheduling algorithm for cyber physical
systems society, Future Generation Computer Systems, Volume 32, March 2014, Pages 253-259, ISSN 0167-739X