Reclaiming Idle CPU Cycles on Kubernetes: Sparse-Domain Multiplexing for Concurrent MPI-CFD Simulations

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Xie, Tianfang
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866910091588927488
author Xie, Tianfang
author_facet Xie, Tianfang
contents When MPI-parallel simulations run on shared Kubernetes clusters, conventional CPU scheduling leaves the vast majority of provisioned cycles idle at synchronization barriers. This paper presents a multiplexing framework that reclaims this idle capacity by co-locating multiple simulations on the same cluster. PMPI-based duty-cycle profiling quantifies the per-rank idle fraction; proportional CPU allocation then allows a second simulation to execute concurrently with minimal overhead, yielding 1.77x throughput. A Pareto sweep to N=5 concurrent simulations shows throughput scaling to 3.74x, with a knee at N=3 offering the best efficiency-cost trade-off. An analytical model with a single fitted parameter predicts these gains within +/-4%. A dynamic controller automates the full pipeline, from profiling through In-Place Pod Vertical Scaling (KEP-1287) to packing and fairness monitoring, achieving 3.25x throughput for four simulations without manual intervention or pod restarts. To our knowledge, this is the first CPU application of In-Place Pod Vertical Scaling to running MPI processes. Experiments on an AWS cluster with OpenFOAM CFD confirm that the results hold under both concentric and standard graph-based (Scotch) mesh partitioning.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_00377
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Reclaiming Idle CPU Cycles on Kubernetes: Sparse-Domain Multiplexing for Concurrent MPI-CFD Simulations
Xie, Tianfang
Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing
Computational Engineering, Finance, and Science
When MPI-parallel simulations run on shared Kubernetes clusters, conventional CPU scheduling leaves the vast majority of provisioned cycles idle at synchronization barriers. This paper presents a multiplexing framework that reclaims this idle capacity by co-locating multiple simulations on the same cluster. PMPI-based duty-cycle profiling quantifies the per-rank idle fraction; proportional CPU allocation then allows a second simulation to execute concurrently with minimal overhead, yielding 1.77x throughput. A Pareto sweep to N=5 concurrent simulations shows throughput scaling to 3.74x, with a knee at N=3 offering the best efficiency-cost trade-off. An analytical model with a single fitted parameter predicts these gains within +/-4%. A dynamic controller automates the full pipeline, from profiling through In-Place Pod Vertical Scaling (KEP-1287) to packing and fairness monitoring, achieving 3.25x throughput for four simulations without manual intervention or pod restarts. To our knowledge, this is the first CPU application of In-Place Pod Vertical Scaling to running MPI processes. Experiments on an AWS cluster with OpenFOAM CFD confirm that the results hold under both concentric and standard graph-based (Scotch) mesh partitioning.
title Reclaiming Idle CPU Cycles on Kubernetes: Sparse-Domain Multiplexing for Concurrent MPI-CFD Simulations
topic Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing
Computational Engineering, Finance, and Science
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.00377