Load-Balancing Dynamic Service Binding in Composition Execution Engines

Performance and scalability of service-oriented applications, such as Web service compositions or business processes, depend on the dynamically bound services. In order to handle an increasing number of clients, load-balancing techniques are important. In this paper we assume the presence of multiple functionally equivalent services and explore different load-balancing algorithms to dynamically select service bindings with the goal to reduce average service response time. Using mathematical queueing models of service performance and simulation, we compare different service selection algorithms, including Static Lottery, Round-Robin, and Shortest-Queue. Furthermore, we propose linear and quadratic Dynamic Lottery service selection algorithms, which assign and periodically update service selection probabilities according to monitored average service response time. Our simulation environment models both stateless and stateful services and offers a wide range of service performance models with different degrees in the variation of service response time. While the Shortest-Queue algorithm performs best in simulation settings with only stateless services or low variance of service response time, the Round-Robin and Dynamic Lottery algorithms work best in settings with stateful services and high variance of service performance.