Dynamic Cloud Resource Allocation: A Broker-Based Multi-Criteria Approach for Optimal Task Assignment

Abstract

Cloud brokers and service providers are concerned with utilizing available resources to maximize their profits. On the other hand, customers seek the best service provider/resource to provide them with maximum satisfaction. One of the main concerns is the variability of available service providers on the cloud, their capabilities, and the availability of their resources. Furthermore, various criteria influence the effective assignment of a task to a virtual machine (VM) before it is, in turn, submitted to the physical machine (PM). To bring cloud service providers (CSPs) and customers together, this study proposes a broker-based mechanism that measures the tendency of each customer’s task. Then, the proposed mechanism assigns all tasks—in prioritized order of importance—to the best available service provider/resource. The model acquires the importance of each task, CSP, or resource by extracting and manipulating the evaluations provided by decision makers and by adopting a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) method. Thus, a partial result of the proposed mechanism is a defined and prioritized pool for each of the tasks, CSPs, and resources. Various MCDM methods are examined and compared to validate the proposed model, and experiments show the applicability of the various methods within the model. Furthermore, the results of the experiments verify the suitability and applicability of the proposed model within the cloud environment.