An LC Branch-and-Branch Algorithm for the Module Assignment Problem

Distributed processing has been a subject of recent interest due to the availability of computer networks. Over the past few years it has led to the identification of several challenging problems. One of these is the problem of optimally distributing program modules over a distributed processing system. In this paper we present an LC (Leas Cost) branch-and-bound algorithm to fiid an optimal assignment that minimizes the sum of execution costs and communication costs. Experimental results show that, for over half of the randomly generated instances, the saving rates exceed 99%. Moreover, it appears that the saving rates rise as the size of the instances increases. Finally, we also introduce two reduction rules to improve the efficiency of the algorithm for some special cases.