International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT) volume 5 number 3- Nov 2013

ISSN: 2231-5381 http://www.ijettjournal.org Page 148

Impact of Two Levels Switching in a LAN for
Cluster Computing
Mamta
#1
, Charanjit Singh
*2

#
Research Scholar, Computer Science, RIMT, Mandigobindgarh, India
*Assistant Professor, Computer Science, RIMT, Mandigobindgarh, India


Abstract Cluster computing is widely used in the world of
computing for computer intensive applications. In this approach
the compute nodes are connected with Fast/Gigabit Ethernet in a
local area network. The activities of the nodes are orchestrated
by clustering middleware, a software layer that sits atop the
nodes and allows the users to treat the cluster as by and large one
cohesive computing unit.

Keywords Bandwidth measurement, Latency, network
performance, parallel computing.
I. INTRODUCTION
The use of interconnected PCs as single logical
computational resources has become a widespread approach to
a cost effective computer intensive problems. Though
dedicated high end supercomputers still have their place in the
market yet combined unused CPU cycles of desktop PCs
available in the campus network can formcomparable virtual
supercomputers. Consequently, parallel processing in a
network of PCs are attracted a boost of attention and
becoming one of the most promising areas of large scale
scientific computing.

A cluster is made up of identical computers connected by a
fast network. Building an efficient cluster means studying the
issues related to performance measures. A collection of
computer nodes, interconnected by a LAN and/or a high-speed
switching network, all nodes can be used individually or
collectively as a cluster. All computers in the cluster are glued
together with middleware support for collective usage as a
single computing resource, in addition to the traditional usage
as individual computers.

Cluster is a type of parallel or distributed processing
systemwhich consists of a collection of interconnected stand
alone/complete computers cooperatively working together as a
single integrated computing resource and provides scalability
by adding servers to it or by adding more clusters to the
network as the need arises. It offers high systemavailability
and reliability due to the redundancy of hardware, operating
systems and applications. It provides data support and high
performance massive storage by running cluster enabled
programs.
Cluster Architecture is needed for different tasks. It adopts the
following system:-

End systems
A single computer can be described as the ideal
cluster [1] or not a cluster at all. All components in a computer
have been standardized and they are well integrated. An
operating has absolute control.

Clusters
A cluster is made of identical computers connect by a
fast network. The cluster and the computers in centrally
controlled. As there are many computers in a cluster,
algorithms are needed to propagate [1] and execute controls
signals and manage resources. Integrated is reduced compared
to the end system.

Intranets
An intranet cluster is made of computers with a
centralized administration. In an intranet cluster the parts are
heterogeneous and they are not controlled by the central
administration. An intranet cluster [1] is more focused on
maintaining and administrating itself than performing high
performance parallel computing.

Internet clusters
There are many difficulties to overcome in an
internet cluster. There is no central administration and the
cluster is spread out all over the world. The distances will
limit the bandwidth [1] so latency will be high. The scale is
both larger and more unpredictable than the intranet. Any
attempt to limit the scale of an internet cluster to an absolute
number will either produce a virtual intranet or expose the
cluster to availability problems.
Cluster computing is potentially able to deliver high
performance at the unbeatable price/performance and thus
providing a low-cost alternative to both shared memory
multiprocessors and distributed memory Massively Parallel
Processors.
II. RELATED WORK
Gupta et .al Studied the effect of TCP socket size for the
local nodes and non local nodes in a grid enabled PC Cluster
for parallel computing[2]. It shows that the obvious answer is
to use level 1 Ethernet network with socket size 64 KB along
with other parameter TCP window size value and additional
parameter of GlobalWindowSize. Desk one has performed
better in peer to peer topology but when the client move
International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT) volume 5 number 3- Nov 2013

ISSN: 2231-5381 http://www.ijettjournal.org Page 149

across the switches them Desk one is not suitable as the
bandwidth chokes.



In [3, 4] author proposed a scheme in which multiple
programs or tasks carried out simultaneously. Which makes
programs or tasks run faster because there are more CPUs or
cores running it without interfering with each other.

This approach relieves the user fromworry of bottlenecks.
But as the demand of high performance computers is always a
hunt so to achieve high speed, low latency interconnection
networks. So we analyse that it could be better to have
modifications in Level 1 and performance can be enhanced
by using Level 2.Which will be having High speed and low
latency interconnections.
III. TECHNIQUES
Parallel Performance Metrics

The execution time of a parallel algorithmdepends on input
size, number of processing elements and their computation
speeds. The number of speed up laws have been proposed
such as Amdahls law (1969) [4] based on a fixed workload or
problem size, Gustafsons law (1985)[4] based on skilled
problemsize where problem size increases with the increase
in machine size and Sun and Ni(1993)[4] law for scaled
problems bounded by memory availability. In comparison to
serial algorithm, parallel algorithmspends more time in inter
processor interaction and idling due to load imbalance. The
presence of serial components in a program sometime
generates the need to carry out excess computation due to
absence of reusability of results by different processing
elements. The various measures that have been used to
evaluate the scheduling policy based on the outcome of
performance analysis are execution time, speed up, efficiency
and costs. The trade off among these performance measures is
required to achieve optimal output.
Execution time is the time interval between the beginning
of parallel computation and the time since the last processing
elements finishes execution. During the execution, balancing
of workload is carried out by identifying concurrency among
tasks to reduce idling time and communication time.
Speed up is another measure that is defined as the ratio of the
time taken to execute a problemon a single processor to the
time required to solve the same problem on a parallel
computers with p identical processing elements. It is generally
devoted as S(p) and expressed as

Execution time using single processor
=
Execution time using multiprocessor with p processors

= =t(s) / t (p)

Where t(s) is the execution time on a single processor and t(p)
is the execution time on a multiprocessor. The whole program
practically cannot be executed in parallel as there are some
operations in a computation that must be performed
sequentially.

Amdahls law

In 1967, Amdahl presented Amdahls law that attempts to
calculate the speed up based on the nature of the algorithm.
This law suggests the need to identify the fraction of
operations in the algorithmthat must be executed sequentially
and denoted as f and remaining fraction (1 f) of an algorithm
can be executed in parallel. Let p be the no of available
processing elements, t(s) and t(p) be the execution time on
single processing element and p number of processing element
respectively. Assuming no overhead occurs, then time
required to performcomputation with p processing elements
as per Amdahls law is

t(p) = f * t(s) +( 1 - f ) * t(s) / p

and speed up is S(p) = t(s) = 1

t(p) f +( 1 f ) / p

The formulation for speed up using Amdahls law are based
on fixed problemsize and speed up drops very rapidly with
the increase in sequential fraction. So fixed load acts as
deterrent in achieving the scalability in performance.
John Gustafson law

John Gustafson (1988) proposed a fixed law using time
concept to scale [4] the speed up model and remove the fixed
load restriction. This law states that problemsize scales with
the number of processors and idea is to keep all processors
busy by increasing the problemsize. The sequential fraction is
International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT) volume 5 number 3- Nov 2013

ISSN: 2231-5381 http://www.ijettjournal.org Page 150

no longer a problemif problemsize can be scaled to match
available computing power.

As per Gustafsons Law, Scaled speed up

S(n)
=
( s +( p * n ))

s +p

=
(s +( p * n )) where s +p =1

= n +( 1 n ) * s

Where s is time for executing serial part of computation, p is
time for executing parallel part of computation on
multiprocessor and s +p is total time and equal to 1. The
equation (s +(p
*
n)) denotes the execution time on single
computer as n parallel parts executed sequentially.
So speed up according to Gustafsons law is
approximately double than Amdahls law. Another law by
SUN and Ni (1993) suggested memory bounded speed up [4]
to optimize the use of both processor and memory. In memory
constrained sealing, the problemis made to fit in the available
memory. With the increase in number of processors, memory
also grows and enables the systemto solve a scaled problem
though programand data decomposition.

Efficiency is another measure of the fraction of the
processors time spent in useful computation and
defined as the ratio of speed up to the number of
processing elements.
Cost is the next measure defined as the product of
parallel execution time and the number of processing
elements used. It is expressed as
Cost = Execution time * total number of processing
elements used
The cost of solving a problem on single processor is
simply its execution time t(s) and cost of solving a
problemon parallel processor is t(p) * n.
So parallel execution time is t(p) = t(s) / S(n).
Utilization is the measure for evaluating resource
utilization and may be defined as ratio of total usage
time over the total available time of the resources
(processors, memory). So it measures the percentage
of keeping the resources busy during the execution of
parallel algorithm. Utilization denoted as U and
expressed as

Utilization U = O(n)

N * T(n)
Where O(n) actual number of operations performed by n
processors and N * T(n) total number of operations that
could be performed by n processors in T(n) time.

In addition to the above metrics, some other general
measures such as CPU time, and CPI (Clock cycles for
instruction) play important role in measuring the
success of parallel implementation of problem.
Different implementation of same algorithmon parallel
systemmay produce different outputs.
IV. METHODOLOGY
In network evaluation, latency and asymptotic bandwidth
are the two parameters, which affect the performance of
both data intensive and compute intensive applications. In
the research, certain parametric values of TCP/IP are
suggested which improves the latency and bandwidth.
"Ping-Pong" is a standard tool to check one way
communication [5] and two-way communication in a
network of PCs. A ping utility sends specifically marked
packets from the local computer to a remote
computer/device. Besides determining whether the remote
computer is currently 'alive', ping also provides indicators
of the general speed or reliability of the network
connection. Ping utility will be used to see the network
traffic, no. of hops, and zero-TTL conditions.
A Cluster is based on the networked PCs, the time of
sending and receiving the message should be analysed
based on the TCP/IP [6,8] parameters defined above and
suitability of Ethernet/Fast Ethernet for coarse grain
application will be tested.
V. CONCLUSION
Cluster computing based on a loosely coupled PC in a LAN
is a relatively new area of interest which is required to
accomplish the task in minimum amount of time because it is
having a critical importance now a days. For this we will
attempt to solve the communication bottlenecks in a cluster
enabled local area network.
.
REFERENCES
[1] Chamlers University of Technology 13
th
April 2007, 2007-04-30,
Cluster Systems.
[2] Gupta.OP (2006) Performance Evaluation Of LAN For Parallel
Computing Pb. Univ. Res j(Sci.) vol.56, pp.207-210
[3] Brent Wilson (2005) Introduction to parallel programming using
message-passing J ournal of Computing Sciences in Colleges, Volume
21 Issue 1
[4] Speedup performance laws. Fixed Workload- Amdhals Law, Scaled
Problems-Gustafron Law(1987),Memory-bounded Speedup Model-
Sunand NI (1993) URL www.comp.nus.edu.sg
[5] TCP/IP test: Ping - pong test. This is the classic latency
and bandwidth testing URL www.jncasr.ac.in
[6] The TCP/IP Guide URL www.tcpipguide.com
[7] Introduction of Parallel Programming Paradigm, message passing, data
parallel implementation URL www.msi.umn.edu
[8] An overview of TCP/IP URL www.wilyhacker.com