Patent ID: 8024209

Claim:
A method for improving an allocation of a plurality of schedulers within a grid computing network, the method comprising: a computer obtaining the plurality of schedulers, each of the plurality of schedulers comprising a computer algorithm for determining a distribution of a plurality of pieces of a job in the grid computing network; the computer obtaining a first scheduler timetable, wherein the first scheduler timetable is a table specifying a first scheduler that the grid computing network uses for a first time period, a second scheduler that the grid computing network uses for a second time period, and a first quantitative measure of a grid efficiency for the grid computing network using the first scheduler timetable; the computer creating a second scheduler timetable by randomly selecting a time period from the first scheduler timetable, randomly selecting a scheduler from the plurality of schedulers, inserting an identifier of the scheduler in the second scheduler timetable in a slot corresponding to the time period, and including one or more scheduler identifiers from the first scheduler timetable; the computer updating a previous results file by determining whether the second scheduler timetable is in the previous results file, and responsive to determining an absence of the second scheduler timetable in the previous results file, saving the second scheduler timetable in the previous results file; the computer calculating a second quantitative measure of the grid efficiency for the grid computing network using an ordering of schedulers in the second scheduler timetable; the computer determining whether the second quantitative measure of the grid efficiency for the grid computing network is greater than the first quantitative measure of the grid efficiency for the grid computing network; the computer, responsive to determining that the second quantitative measure of the grid efficiency for the grid computing network is greater than the first quantitative measure of the grid efficiency for the grid computing network, replacing the first quantitative measure of the grid efficiency for the grid computing network with the second quantitative measure of the grid efficiency for the grid computing network and replacing the first scheduler timetable with the second scheduler timetable; the computer determining whether a plateau has been reached, wherein the plateau is one in which an iterative process cannot improve a quantitative measure of the grid efficiency for the grid computing network; and the computer responsive to determining that the plateau has been reached, and responsive to an input specifying a number of backward steps, performing operations in which the first scheduler timetable is only replaced with the second scheduler timetable when the second quantitative measure of the grid efficiency for the grid computing network is less than or equal to the first quantitative measure of the grid efficiency for the grid computing network.