Cooperative load balancing for a network of heterogeneous computers

In this paper, we present a game theoretic approach to solve the static load balancing problem in a distributed system which consists of heterogeneous computers connected by a single channel communication network. We use a cooperative game to model the load balancing problem. Our solution is based on the Nash bargaining solution (NBS) which provides a Pareto optimal solution for the distributed system and is also a fair solution. An algorithm for computing the NBS is derived for the proposed cooperative load balancing game. Our scheme is compared with that of other existing schemes under simulations with various system loads and configurations. We show that the solution of our scheme is near optimal and is superior to the other schemes in terms of fairness.