Scheduling Jobs in Computational Grid using Hybrid ACS and GA Approach

Metaheuristics algorithms show very good performance in solving various job scheduling problems in computational grid systems. However, due to the complexity and heterogeneous nature of resources in grid computing, stand-alone algorithm is not capable to find a good quality solution in reasonable time. This study proposes a hybrid algorithm, specifically ant colony system and genetic algorithm to solve the job scheduling problem. The high level hybridization algorithm will keep the identity of each algorithm in performing the scheduling task. The study focuses on static grid computing environment and the metrics for optimization are the makespan and flowtime. Experiment results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms other stand-alone algorithms such as ant system, genetic algorithms, and ant colony system for makespan. However, for flowtime, ant system and genetic algorithm perform better.