Siyuan Li

Junwen Ding, Liangcai Song, Siyuan Li et al.

Computing workflows in heterogeneous multiprocessor systems are frequently modeled as directed acyclic graphs of tasks and data blocks, which represent computational modules and their dependencies in the form of data produced by a task and used by others. However, for some workflows, such as the task schedule in a digital signal processor may run out of memory by exposing too much parallelism. This paper focuses on the data allocation and task scheduling problem under memory constraints, and concentrates on shared memory platforms. We first propose an integer linear programming model to formulate the problem. Then we consider the problem as an extended flexible job shop scheduling problem, while trying to minimize the critical path of the graph. To solve this problem, we propose a tabu search algorithm (TS) which combines several distinguished features such as a greedy initial solution construction method and a mixed neighborhood evaluation strategy based on exact evaluation and approximate evaluation methods. Experimental results on randomly generated instances show that the the proposed TS algorithm can obtain relatively high-quality solutions in a reasonable computational time. In specific, the tabu search method averagely improves the makespan by 5-25\% compared to the classical load balancing algorithm that are widely used in the literature. Besides, some key features of TS are also analyzed to identify its success factors.

Siyuan Li, Xi Lin, Hansong Xu et al.

Currently, the generative model has garnered considerable attention due to its application in addressing the challenge of scarcity of abnormal samples in the industrial Internet of Things (IoT). However, challenges persist regarding the edge deployment of generative models and the optimization of joint edge AI-generated content (AIGC) tasks. In this paper, we focus on the edge optimization of AIGC task execution and propose GMEL, a generative model-driven industrial AIGC collaborative edge learning framework. This framework aims to facilitate efficient few-shot learning by leveraging realistic sample synthesis and edge-based optimization capabilities. First, a multi-task AIGC computational offloading model is presented to ensure the efficient execution of heterogeneous AIGC tasks on edge servers. Then, we propose an attention-enhanced multi-agent reinforcement learning (AMARL) algorithm aimed at refining offloading policies within the IoT system, thereby supporting generative model-driven edge learning. Finally, our experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm in optimizing the total system latency of the edge-based AIGC task completion.

Youshao Xiao, Lin Ju, Zhenglei Zhou et al.

Many distributed training techniques like Parameter Server and AllReduce have been proposed to take advantage of the increasingly large data and rich features. However, stragglers frequently occur in distributed training due to resource contention and hardware heterogeneity, which significantly hampers the training efficiency. Previous works only address part of the stragglers and could not adaptively solve various stragglers in practice. Additionally, it is challenging to use a systematic framework to address all stragglers because different stragglers require diverse data allocation and fault-tolerance mechanisms. Therefore, this paper proposes a unified distributed training framework called AntDT (Ant Distributed Training Framework) to adaptively solve the straggler problems. Firstly, the framework consists of four components, including the Stateful Dynamic Data Sharding service, Monitor, Controller, and Agent. These components work collaboratively to efficiently distribute workloads and provide a range of pre-defined straggler mitigation methods with fault tolerance, thereby hiding messy details of data allocation and fault handling. Secondly, the framework provides a high degree of flexibility, allowing for the customization of straggler mitigation solutions based on the specific circumstances of the cluster. Leveraging this flexibility, we introduce two straggler mitigation solutions, namely AntDT-ND for non-dedicated clusters and AntDT-DD for dedicated clusters, as practical examples to resolve various types of stragglers at Ant Group. Justified by our comprehensive experiments and industrial deployment statistics, AntDT outperforms other SOTA methods more than 3x in terms of training efficiency. Additionally, in Alipay's homepage recommendation scenario, using AntDT reduces the training duration of the ranking model from 27.8 hours to just 5.4 hours.