Rate of change load balancing in distributed and parallel systems

Abstract

Dynamic load balancing (DLB) is an important system function destined to distribute workload among available processors to improve throughput and/or execution times of parallel computer programs either uniform or non-uniform (jobs whose workload varies at run-time in unpredictable ways). Non-uniform computation and communication requirements may bog down a parallel computer if no efficient load distribution is effected. A novel distributed algorithm for load balancing is proposed and is based on local rate of change (RoC) observations rather than on global absolute load numbers. It is a totally distributed algorithm and requires no centralized trigger and/or decision makers. The strategy is discussed and analyzed by means of experimental simulation.