http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpls/abs_all.jsp?arnumber=6956867&tag=1
The tactical edge (battlefields, disaster relief operations, etc.) is an ideal domain for utilizing mobile devices for computation. However, these situations require jobs to complete in a timely manner. Efficiently offloading computation can ensure timely job completion, but access to cloud computing infrastructure is typically limited, unreliable, or unavailable. As an alternative, we propose using vehicle-mounted high performance computers, called Tactical HPCs (T-HPCs), as offload targets. A common scenario includes multiple offload targets with different computation capabilities, multiple clients wanting to offload computations, and wireless ad-hoc connectivity. While offloading strategies exist, currently none address the requirements of task scheduling in this setting. This paper presents an algorithm for offloading tasks from multiple sources while taking into account the computation capabilities and current utilization of available offload targets. In addition, distributed scheduling avoids a single point of failure which could be disastrous on the tactical edge. We report the results of simulations showing that our method reduces job completion time compared to alternative offloading schemes.
Sookoor, T, Doria, D, Bruno, D, Shires, D, Swenson, B, Pollock, L., “Offload Destination Selection to Enable Distributed Computation on Battlefields.” In IEEE Millitary Communications Conference (MILCOM). October, 2014.
