WWW server load balancing technique based on passive performance measurement

Server load balancing is indispensable in World Wide Web for providing high-quality service. In server load balancing, since the server loads and capacities are not always identical, traffic should be distributed by measuring server performance to improve the service quality. This paper proposes a load balancing technique conducted by passive measurement, which estimates the server performance through user traffic passing the load balancer. Since this method evaluates server performance without executing any programs on the server, no additional server or network load is generated. The effectiveness of the proposed measurement method and load balancing technique is confirmed experimentally.