Testbed for a study of load balancing algorithms on distributed systems

The problem addressed in this paper is the building of a testbed for a rapid evaluation of load balancing algorithms on realistic models of distributed systems. The testbed developed consists of a pre-processing tool for simulation models generation, a simulator based on Network II.5 language, and a post-processing tool for output filtering and results presentation. To illustrate the usefulness of the testbed, a new periodic symmetrically-initiated load balancing algorithm called PSI is compared to a set of algorithms reported in the literature. This comparison involves a relative ordering of the algorithms on a baseline system to provide predictions of job response time as a function of the offered load. A study of the algorithms robustness to changes in a set of system and workload attributes such as communication bandwidth, system size, file system structure, and workload model, is also undertaken.