An extended ns-2 for validation of load balancing algorithms in content delivery networks

Abstract

This paper deals with the design, the development and the usage guidelines of a novel Content Delivery Network library for the ns-2 simulator. Such library allows evaluating new application-level load balancing approaches, with special regard to distributed content web servers. It includes some typical load balancing algorithms proposed in the literature and it can be extended to support new solutions. The proposed tool extends the ns-2 simulator with new HTTP data types and new application components which are in charge of data treatment. Moreover a new agent has been added to allow the simulation of data transferring. The library has been designed to work in a non-hierarchical and peer to peer cooperation environment. Several examples of testing scenarios are proposed in the paper.