Method of Short-Term Use of Idle Corporate Network Computers to Solve a Resource-Intensive Problem

Abstract

The article describes the results of an experimental study of utilizing temporarily idle computing power in a corporate network. A distinctive feature of the method is the implementation of the event log paradigm to synchronize the states of distributed worker processes. The paradigm provides the following advantages over ‘tasks’. As a general method it expands the class of problems solved on temporarily idle equipment. Transferring the scheduling function to the application allows one to improve the efficiency. The main advantage of the method is the low overhead of load migration. This paper provides a detailed discussion of metrics that demonstrate this advantage when searching for members of the OEIS A022008 sequence. For a typical corporate network, the mode with the maximum intensity of calls to the event log process was studied. In this mode, the values of maximum speedup, minimum time of autonomous calculation of the worker processes, minimum time of solving the problem at maximum speedup are experimentally estimated. The results allow us to make a positive conclusion about the applicability of the method. Directions for further improvement of the method are noted.