Propagating Resource Constraints Using Mutual Exclusion Reasoning

One of the most recent techniques for propagating resource constraints in Constraint Based scheduling is Energy Constraint. This technique focuses in precedence based scheduling, where precedence relations are taken into account rather than the absolute position of activities. Although, this particular technique proved to be efficient on discrete unary resources, it provides only loose bounds for jobs using discrete multi-capacity resources. In this paper we show how mutual exclusion reasoning can be used to propagate time bounds for activities using discrete resources. We show that our technique based on critical path analysis and mutex reasoning is just as effective on unary resources, and also shows that it is more effective on multi-capacity resources, through both examples and empirical study.