Dynamic Multi-User Load Balancing in Distributed Systems

In this paper, we review two existing static load balancing schemes based on M/M/1 queues. We then use these schemes to propose two dynamic load balancing schemes for multi-user (multi-class) jobs in heterogeneous distributed systems. These two dynamic load balancing schemes differ in their objective. One tries to minimize the expected response time of the entire system while the other tries to minimize the expected response time of the individual users. The performance of the dynamic schemes is compared with that of the static schemes using simulations with various loads and parameters. The results show that, at low communication overheads, the dynamic schemes show superior performance over the static schemes. But as the overheads increase, the dynamic schemes (as expected) yield similar performance to that of the static schemes.