An Efficient Algorithm for Communication-Based Task Mapping

The communication between tasks of a parallel application is an important characteristic to consider when mapping tasks to computing cores due to possible differences in communication performance. Within a machine, performance differences are introduced by the memory hierarchy, in which cache memories can be shared by groups of cores and intra-chip interconnections are faster than inter-chip interconnections. In cluster and grid systems, the network imposes an additional communication latency. By mapping tasks that communicate to cores nearby on the memory hierarchy, or to the same nodes in clusters or grids, the communication of parallel applications is optimized, leading to increased performance and energy efficiency. In the task mapping context, one of the most important aspects to be considered is the mapping algorithm, as it determines the improvements that can be achieved. Since the problem of finding the best mapping is NP-Hard, heuristics must be employed to find an approximate solution in feasible time. In this paper, we present Eager Map, a new algorithm to perform communication-based mapping that is based on a greedy grouping strategy applied hierarchically. Experimental evaluation indicates that the execution time of our algorithm is 10 times faster than the state-of-the-art, and presents higher performance improvements. Due to its low execution time and high stability, Eager Map is also suitable for online task mapping, where tasks are migrated during execution.