Interweaving heterogeneous metaheuristics using harmony search

In this paper, we present a novel parallel-metaheuristic framework, which enables a set of heterogeneous metaheuristics to be effectively interwoven and coordinated. The key player of this framework is a harmony-search-based coordinator devised using a recent breed of soft computing paradigm called harmony search that mimics the improvisation process of musicians. For the applicability validation and the performance evaluation, we have implemented a parallel hybrid metaheuristic using the framework for the task scheduling problem on multiprocessor computing systems. Experimental results verify that the proposed framework is a compelling approach to parallelize heterogeneous metaheuristics.