Decentralized market-based resource allocation in a heterogeneous computing system

We present a decentralized market-based approach to resource allocation in a heterogeneous overlay network. The presented resource allocation strategy assigns overlay network resources to traffic dynamically based on current utilization, thus, enabling the system to accommodate fluctuating demand for its resources. We present a mathematical model of our resource allocation environment that treats the allocation of system resources as a constrained optimization problem. Our presented resource allocation strategy is based on solving the dual of this centralized optimization problem. The solution to the dual of our centralized optimization problem suggests a simple decentralized algorithm for resource allocation that is extremely efficient. Our results demonstrate the near optimality of the proposed approach through extensive simulation of a real-world environment. That is, the conducted simulation study utilizes components taken from a real-world middleware application environment and clearly demonstrates the practicality of the approach in a realistic setting.