Dynamic alternation between receiver-initiated and sender-initiated load sharing

The author proposes a new distributed adaptive load-sharing scheme, called Alternate, that alternates between sender and receiver, dynamically depending on the current system load, with the goal of obtaining good performance at all load levels. The system is assumed to be in one of two states depending on whether sender or receiver is currently applied. The state is changed when any node fails in its load-sharing task, that is, when a node using sender does not find a lightly loaded node or a node utilizing receiver fails to find more work. Simulation was used to evaluate sender, receiver, the combined approach, and the alternating approach in a workstation environment. Sender was found to behave better than receiver at light load levels, whereas receiver is superior at higher loads. Alternate's performance is superior or equal to the best attained by sender, receiver, and the combined scheme. Alternate performs best when job interarrival time and resource demands vary greatly.<>