scheduling, which comply more to present-day
technologies (in the time of cloud computing) rather
than traditional schemas. We propose new
coevolution genetic algorithm (CGA), coevolution
particle swan optimization algorithm (CPSO) with
its ranked and weight ranked extensions’ (CRPSO
and CWRPSO), as well as coevolution gravity
search algorithm (CGSA) for workflow scheduling
problem in flexible cloud environment, where
computing resources can be modified according to
virtualization principles.
2 RELATED WORKS
Palacios et al. (Palacios, 2014) proposed hybrid
coevolutionary genetic algorithm (GA) called CELS
for fuzzy flexible job shop scheduling problem with
heuristic initialization step and additional local
species improvement during fitness evaluation.
Definition of the problem and developed methods
are similar to workflow scheduling problem in the
use of mapping and ordering species.
Coevolutionary implementation includes mapping
and ordering species, which form cooperative
populations. However, in our approach the first
population optimizes both mapping and ordering,
while the second population selects an optimal
resources configuration. Also Palacios et al.
proposed a different approach for coevolution fitness
evaluation with other selection strategy - species
coupling is organized according to the best, random,
and individual rank.
Huang et al. (Huang and Chen, 2014) offered
two coevolutionary algorithms based on GA for job
shop scheduling problem with different methods of
subpopulation merging. Coevolutionary scheme is
based on full task dimension splitting to three
subpopulations, thus decreasing the dimensionality
of each new population. Whereas our populations
develop according to the task characteristic
diversity. Huang’s work is focused on the selection
methods of subpopulations. The first proposed
CCGA scheme is based on greedy (by fitness)
individual selection from other population while the
second DBCCGA computes the distance between
individuals and chooses the one from another
population according to the obtained distances.
Multi-population PSO (Particle Swarm
Optimization) for flow shop scheduling problem was
suggested by Liu et al (Liu, 2013). The main idea of
this paper is to divide full population into three
populations at each iteration and apply different
optimization strategies for each population. At the
merging stage the best particles from each
subpopulation are used to build a probabilistic model
by EDA (Exploratory Data Analysis) and after that
to improve the particles, SA (Simulated Annealing)
is applied locally to these particles.
In the next work, Jiao et al. (Jiao and Chen,
2011) proposed Cooperative Coevolution PSO based
on the catastrophe for fuzzy flow shop scheduling
problem. Extended catastrophe operation helps to
avoid local optima. Their coevolution interpretation
as in the previous works contrasts with our approach
in the division of a population into subpopulations.
Verma et al. (Verma and Kaushal, 2014)
proposed Bi-criteria priority algorithm based on
PSO for workflow scheduling. Their algorithm is
hybrid of HEFT (Heterogeneous Earliest Finish
Time) heuristic and PSO meta-heuristics. HEFT is
used to obtain an order of tasks while PSO is applied
for tasks’ assignment optimization. The makespan
and total cost of result schedule are the main
optimization criteria in the paper whereas we
consider only the makespan. However, their particle
is represented only by task assignment, and ordering
of a schedule is performed by Budget HEFT.
The Revised Discrete PSO for cloud workflow
scheduling is proposed by Wu et al (Wu, 2010). In
this paper authors proposed the bi-criteria
optimization of makespan and total cost with
initialization by greedy heuristic GRASP algorithm.
In comparison to our work, their particle
representation contains an ordered vector of pairs
(task, node) and particle update is performed only by
mapping. During PSO mapping update, the tasks are
taken sequentially, in respect to their inner
dependencies. Whereas in our work, mapping and
ordering are evaluated and updated separately.
Lei (Lei, 2012) offered coevolution GA for
fuzzy flexible job shop scheduling. Although
merging scheme is different to our scheme, this
work is similar in used concepts of coevolution and
partially has similar representations of the different
species. The algorithm performs selection based on
the artificial population of a scheduled solution
while we perform a selection only on population of
the same species and the selection of different
species can be independent.
Gu et al. (Gu, 2010) proposed algorithm to
resolve scheduling problem in the field of stochastic
job shop scheduling based on GA. According to
experiments, their method outperforms standard
widely applied GA and some of its modifications. In
contrast to our cooperative scheme, besides the field
of application, authors use a competitive coevolution
scheme.