Date of Award

12-2002

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

First Advisor

Gary B. Lamont, PhD

Abstract

The allocation of processes to processors has long been of interest to engineers. The processor allocation problem considered here assigns multiple applications onto a computing system. With this algorithm researchers could more efficiently examine real-time sensor data like that used by United States Air Force digital signal processing efforts or real-time aerosol hazard detection as examined by the Department of Homeland Security. Different choices for the design of a load balancing algorithm are examined in both the problem and algorithm domains. Evolutionary algorithms are used to find near-optimal solutions. These algorithms incorporate multiobjective coevolutionary and parallel principles to create an effective and efficient algorithm for real-world allocation problems. Three evolutionary algorithms (EA) are developed. The primary algorithm generates a solution to the processor allocation problem. This allocation EA is capable of evaluating objectives in both an aggregate single objective and a Pareto multiobjective manner. The other two EAs are designed for fine turning returned allocation EA solutions. One coevolutionary algorithm is used to optimize the parameters of the allocation algorithm. This meta-EA is parallelized using a coarse-grain approach to improve performance. Experiments are conducted that validate the improved effectiveness of the parallelized algorithm. Pareto multiobjective approach is used to optimize both effectiveness and efficiency objectives. The other coevolutionary algorithm generates difficult allocation problems for testing the capabilities of the allocation EA. The effectiveness of both coevolutionary algorithms for optimizing the allocation EA is examined quantitatively using standard statistical methods. Also the allocation EAs objective tradeoffs are analyzed and compared.

AFIT Designator

AFIT-GCS-ENG-02-36

DTIC Accession Number

ADA413647

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