The effect of start-up delays in scheduling divisible loads on bus networks: An alternate approach

In this paper, scheduling of divisible loads in a bus network is considered. The objective is to minimize the processing time by including the overhead component due to start-up time that could degrade the performance of the system, in addition to the inherent communication and computation delays. These overheads are considered to be constant additive factors to the communication and computation components. A closed-form expression for optimal processing time is derived. Using this closed-form expression, this paper analytically proves significant results regarding the optimal sequence of load distribution and optimal number of processors. Numerical examples are presented to illustrate the analysis.