Decentralized proportional load balancing

Load balancing is a powerful technique commonly used in communication and computer networks to improve system performance, robustness and fairness. In this paper, we consider a general model capturing the performance of communication and computer networks, and on top of it we propose a decentralized...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Authors: Anselmi, J., Walton, N.S.
Format: article
Status:Versión aceptada para publicación
Publication Date:2016
Country:España
Institution:Basque Center for Applied Mathematics (BCAM)
Repository:BIRD. BCAM's Institutional Repository Data
OAI Identifier:oai:bird.bcamath.org:20.500.11824/131
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11824/131
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Decentralized load balancer
Multipath routing
Proportional fairness
Utility optimization
Description
Summary:Load balancing is a powerful technique commonly used in communication and computer networks to improve system performance, robustness and fairness. In this paper, we consider a general model capturing the performance of communication and computer networks, and on top of it we propose a decentralized algorithm for balancing load among multiple network paths. The proposed algorithm is inspired by the modus operandi of the processor-sharing queue and on each network entry point operates as follows: every time a unit of load completes its service on a path, it increases by one unit the load of that path and decreases by one unit the load of a path selected at random with probability proportional to the amount of load on each of the available paths. We develop a dynamical system to argue that our load-balancer achieves a desirable network-wide utility optimization.