k-Dispatch: A Workflow Management System for the Automated Execution of Biomedical Ultrasound Simulations on Remote Computing Resources

Therapeutic ultrasound is increasingly being used for applications
in oncology, drug delivery, and neurostimulation. In order to adapt
the treatment procedures to patient needs, complex physical models
have to be evaluated prior to the treatment. These models, however,
require intensive computations that can only be satisfied by cloud
and HPC facilities. Unfortunately, employing these facilities and
executing the required computations is not straightforward even
for experienced developers.
k-Dispatch is a novel workflow management system aimed at
modelling biomedical ultrasound procedures using the open-source
k-Wave acoustic toolbox. It allows ultrasound procedures to be
uploaded with a single click and provides a notification when the
result is ready for download. Inside k-Dispatch, there is a complex workflow management system which decodes the workflow
graph, optimizes the workflow execution parameters, submits jobs
to remote computing facilities, monitors their progress, and logs
the consumed core hours. In this paper, the architecture and deployment of k-Dispatch are discussed, including the approach used
for workflow optimization. A key innovation is the use of previous performance data to automatically select the utilised hardware
and execution parameters. A review of related work is also given,
including workflow management systems, batch schedulers, and
cluster simulators.