Pareto-Optimal Scheduling in the Half-batch Multiserver-job Model

Abstract

In large-scale computing systems, jobs often demand heterogeneous server allocations: large jobs that occupy a substantial fraction of the servers are of high importance and are thus latency-sensitive, while small jobs fill in the remaining capacity to maintain throughput. To model this dynamic, we introduce the half-batch multiserver-job (MSJ) framework, a queueing model in which large jobs arrive according to a Poisson process and require all servers simultaneously, while small jobs, each needing only one server, are always available. We prove that, in the half-batch MSJ model, the Pareto frontier for large-job mean response time and small-job throughput admits a simple and exact characterization. It is generated by a family of convoy policies, under which the system serves small jobs until $k$ large jobs have arrived and then switches to serving large jobs, together with convex combinations of neighboring convoy policies. Our result is fully general and non-asymptotic, holding for every stable arrival rate $\lambda$, every number of servers $n$, and every large-job size distribution $S$.