Scheduling with Communication Delays

Rachid Saad1
121, rue Ziane Said, la Scala El Biar, Alger Algeria

Abstract

In this paper, scheduling problems with communication delays are considered. Formally, we are given a partial order relation \(\prec\) on a set of tasks \(T\), a set of processors \(P\), and a deadline \(d\). Supposing that a unit communication delay between two tasks \(a\) and \(b\) such that \(a \prec b\) occurs whenever \(a\) and \(b\) are scheduled on different processors, the question is: Can the tasks of \(T\) be scheduled on \(P\) within time \(d\)? It is shown here that the problem is NP-complete even if \(d = 4\). Also, for an unlimited number of processors, C. Picouleau has shown that for \(d = 8\) the problem is NP-complete. Here it is shown that it remains NP-complete for \(d \geq 6\) but is polynomially solvable for \(d < 6\), which closes the gap between P and NP for this problem, as regards the deadline.