DISTRIBUTED COMPUTATION WITH COMMUNICATION DELAYS - ASYMPTOTIC PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS

This paper analyzes the effect of communication delay on the optimal distribution of processing loads in distributed computing networks. The processing load is assumed to satisfy the property of arbitrary divisibility. The objective is to divide and distribute this processing load among various processors in the network in order to minimize the processing time. An asymptotic analysis of the performance of such networks is carried out to obtain a limit on the performance enhancement obtained by using additional processors. The architectures considered are linear and single-level tree configurations. The cases when the processors are equipped with and without front-ends are considered. (C) 1994 Academic Press, Inc.