Multicore servers in datacenter systems are routinely used to run multiple disparate application workload mixes. Analysis performed in Google's datacenters show, for instance, components (i.e., processes) of up to 19 distinct applications to be co-deployed on a single multicore node. Virtualization technology further encourages this trend, increasing platform utilization via higher levels of workload consolidation. Systems software on these shared server nodes must meet challenges that include (a) providing end-to-end performance guarantees for possibly multiple applications and delivering global platform-level properties such as platform-level power or utilization caps., (b) mediating use of shared resources efficiently while offering isolation guarantees for multiple applications running on consolidated platforms to maintain their performance properties predictably, and (c) meeting multiple dynamic competing application performance levels and platform-level properties efficiently, especially in oversubscribed systems. The goals of this thesis addresses (a)-(c) as follows: (1) by developing system-level mechanisms for addressing challenges (a)-(c), (2) by demonstrating their ability to deliver improved application performance with less variability and improved platform efficiency, and (3) by creating principles and representative methods for realizing the isolation properties sought by applications and the efficiency sought for platforms. The concrete realization of these goals is a Virtual Platforms (VP) enabled hypervisor - where per application or platform-level policy objectives are expressed at the system-level via elastic resource abstractions, which may also change dynamically during system runtime. For multiple consolidated applications (and their virtual platforms), there are methods that monitor and mediate their use of shared platform resources to deliver improved isolation for predictable performance, while Merlin: a resource allocator for shared multicore servers makes it easier to implement higher-level arbitration policies while meeting multiple performance and platform properties. As single-node multicore platforms evolve further from small numbers of homogeneous cores toward multiple sets or islands of potentially heterogeneous cores residing on a single chip, such platforms will have multiple resource managers managing their respective `islands' of resources. Though geared toward improved scalability and functionality, for applications spanning across multiple diverse resource islands to realize such opportunities, systems software must make it easier for them to interact with the island managers; and also help islands based systems achieve end-to-end performance properties via joint coordination amongst their island managers. In order to meet the challenges in maintaining performance objectives on future `scale-out' platforms, this thesis contributes inTune: a framework for inter-island operation, offering APIs and mechanisms that permit applications (and their virtual platforms) to interface with resource islands and their resource managers to jointly achieve application performance guarantees and global platform-level properties. This thesis focuses on the management of compute, physical memory and memory bandwidth resources of single node server platforms, however the methods presented in this work can be extended to other resource types including network and storage resources. InTune and Virtual-Platforms are implemented in the Xen hypervisor for x86 multi-core platforms with multiple NUMA memory nodes. Evaluation with representative parallel, web-based, and real-time applications and application mixes demonstrate the benefits of using our methods to achieve application performance and platform policy objectives.

Diss. Göteborg : University, 2004. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1972. / Vita. Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

M. Ing. / The report presents and analyses allocation methods for assigning limited resources to project tasks. The report is partitioned into five chapters beginning with an introductory chapter. Chapter 1 summarises the problem and describes the process followed in addressing the problem. A literature chapter covers the literature for the development and analysis of the methods presented in the report. Chapter three presents the allocation methods and discusses the role of the methods in single and multi-project resource allocation. Two commercial methods (Hu’s Algorithm; and Coffman’s and Munt’s Algorithm) along with a recipe for implementation are discussed. It is followed by the introduction and formulation of two additional methods that base their resource allocation on critical and least slack chains (Least Slack and Least Slack Ancestors First methods). A final method, based on locating the best possible solution, is presented and formulated (Best Fit method). A case study is presented in chapter four which is applied to each of the formulated methods in chapter three. Key metrics are derived and necessary compassions among the methods are performed. Chapter 4 concludes with an analysis of the comparisons. Finally Chapter five presents a conclusion to the report summarising the results of chapters three and four. Future recommendations are also discussed with the main emphasis on a possible investigation of a hybrid method stemming from the application and analysis in chapter four.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 18-21, 2004 / Town & Country Resort, San Diego, California / Several algorithms have been proposed for solving constraint satisfaction and the more general constraint optimization problem in a distributed manner. In this paper we apply two such algorithms to the task of dynamic resource allocation in the sensor network domain using appropriate abstractions. The aim is to effectively track multiple targets by making the sensors coordinate with each other in a distributed manner, given a probabilistic representation of tasks (targets). We present simulation results and compare the performance of the DBA and DSA algorithms under varying experimental settings.

Agent technology enables the designers of computer based systems to construct software agents that are able to model attitudes. We present a frame-work in which these artifacts aim to express the preferences of both their designers and their owners. Just like human societies need rules, regula-tions, norms and social laws, in order to function, societies of agents need coordination mechanisms in order to work efficiently. We show why some higher level goals of agents are incompatible, e.g. the automatic creation of coalitions among agents, and at the same time being self-interested and boundedly rational. One way to model the outcome of planned interactions between agents is to apply game theory. We use game theory for proving some results, e.g. a \No free lunch" theorem. For more practical applications, however, other approaches are often needed. One such domain is dynamic resource allocation, where agents through auction mechanisms or different kinds of mobile broker techniques solve the problem of coordinating the allocation. We present comparisons of the results of simulations of several of these approaches in a telecommunication networks application. Another interesting domain concerns mobile robots for playing soccer. To model this problem, a novel approach called artificial electrical fields, is used for both navigation and manipulation of objects. / Agentteknologin möjliggör design av mjukvaruagenter som kan representera åsikter. Vi presenterar ett ramverk i vilket både agenternas designrar, såväl som ägare, kan uttrycka sina preferenser. Precis som i verkligheten, där mänskliga samhällen behöver regler och lagar för att fungera, så behöver agenterna normer och koordineringsmekanismer för att fungera effektivt. Vi visar varför några av högnivåmålen i multi-agentsystem är motstridiga, tex rationalitet och förmåga att bygga koalitioner. Ett sätt att modellera interaktioner mellan agenter är att använda spelteori. Vi använder spelteori bland annat för att visa ett "No free lunch"-teorem för agentsystem, men i praktiska tillämpningar, så behöver vi ofta använda andra angreppssätt. En sådan problemdomän är dynamisk resursallokering i telekommunikationssystem, i vilken vi simulerat koordineringar mellan agenter för att lösa problemet. Vi presenterar resultaten av simuleringar av ett flertal olika arkitekturer, bland annat mobila mäklar-agenter och auktionsagenter. En ytterligare domän är robotfotboll till vilken vi utvecklat en heuristik för val av handlingar baserad på artificiella elektroniska fält.

published_or_final_version / Economics and Finance / Master / Master of Economics

Effective resource management requires tools and decision aides to help determine users' needs and appropriate assignment. The goal of this research was to design, implement, and test technological tools that, even in a dynamic environment, effectively support the matching of users and resources. The context of the investigation is the Information Center, the structure used to manage and control the computing resources demanded by end users. The major contributions of the research lie in two areas: (1) the development and use of a knowledge acquisition called Resource Attribute Charts (RAC), which allow for the structured definition of the resources managed by the IC, and (2) the design, implementation, validation, and verification of the transportability of Information Center Expert, a system that supports the activities of the IC personnel. Prototyping, the system development methodology commonly used in software engineering, was used to design the general architecture of the knowledge acquisition tools, the knowledge maintenance tool, and the expert system itself. The knowledge acquisition tools, RAC, were used to build the knowledge base of ICE (Information Center Expert). ICE was installed at two corporate sites, its software recommendations were validated, and its transportability from one location to another was verified experimentally. The viability of a rule-based consultation system as a mechanism for bringing together knowledge about users, problems, and resources for the purpose of effective resource management was demonstrated.

In Ontario, access to publicly funded home care services is managed by Community Care Access Centres (CCACs). CCAC case managers are responsible for assessing all potential clients and prioritizing the allocation of services. The objectives of this thesis were to: 1) describe the types of decisions made by CCAC organizations and by individual case managers concerning the allocation of nursing, personal support and homemaking services to long-term adult clients with no mental health issues; and 2) to describe and assess the factors and values that influence these decisions. We conducted two case studies in which qualitative data were collected through 39 semi-structured interviews and a review of relevant documents from an urban and a rural area CCAC. A modified thematic analysis was used to identify themes related to the types of priority setting decisions and the associated factors and values. An internet-based survey was then designed based on these results and answered by 177 case managers from 8 of the 14 CCACs. The survey contained discrete choice experiments to examine the relative importance of client attributes and values to prioritization choices related to personal support and homemaking services, as well as questions that examined case managers’ attitudes towards priority setting. We found that both the rural and the urban CCACs utilized similar forms of priority setting and that case managers made the majority of these decisions during their daily interactions with clients. Numerous client, CCAC, and external factors related to the values of safety, independence and client-focused care were considered by case managers during needs assessment and service plan development. The relative importance of the selected client attributes in defining need for personal support and homemaking services was tested and found to be significantly affected by the location of the case manager (rural or urban area), years of experience in home care, and recent experience providing informal care. Case managers allocated services in the spirit of equal service for equal need and in consideration of operational efficiency. We also identified a number of case manager-related, client-related and external factors that interfered with the achievement of horizontal equity.

The recent advances in mobile computing and distributed multimedia systems allow mobile hosts (clients) to access wireless multimedia Data at anywhere and at anytime. In accessing multimedia information on the distributed multimedia servers from wireless personal communication service systems, a channel assignment problem and synchronization problems should be solved efficiently. Recent demand for mobile telephone service have been growing rapidly while the electro-magnetic spectrum of frequencies allocated for this purpose remain limited. Any solution to the channel assignment problem is subject to this limitation, as well as the interference constraint between adjacent channels in the spectrum. Channel allocation schemes provide a flexible and efficient access to bandwidth in wireless and mobile communication systems. In this dissertation, both an efficient distributed algorithm for dynamic channel allocation based upon mutual exclusion model, and an efficient distributed synchronization algorithm using Quasi-sink for wireless and mobile multimedia systems to ensure and facilitate mobile client access to multimedia objects are proposed. Algorithm's performance with several channel systems using different types of call arrival patterns is determined analytically. A set of simulation experiments to evaluate the performance of our scheme using message complexity and buffer usage at each frame arrival time.