Efficient load balancing in interconnected LANs using group communication

Abstract

The paper investigates the use of group communication to improve the efficiency of load balancing in interconnected LANs. Conventional load balancing techniques usually assume point-to-point connections among the computers and typically work on a single LAN only. This may waste network bandwidth and lengthen the load balancing time in LANs that support group communication such as the Ethernet. To tackle this problem a two level algorithm is proposed. At the LAN level, all computers in a LAN maintain loading information in the entire LAN using a globally ordered group channel. The workload in the different LANs is balanced by moving load from the overloaded LANs to the underloaded ones. It is proved that the proposed algorithm converges to the state of global balance geometrically. Experimental results show that the algorithm reduces load balancing time and network utilization significantly, compared to the single level algorithm without group communication.