GAMMON: a load balancing strategy for local computer systems with multiaccess networks

Abstract

The authors present an efficient load balancing strategy, GAMMON (global allocation from maximum to minimum in constant time), for distributed computing systems connected by multiaccess local area networks. The broadcast capability of these networks is utilized to implement an identification procedure at the applications level for the maximally and the minimally loaded processors. The search technique has an average overhead which is independent of the number of participating stations. An implementation of GAMMON on a network of Sun workstations is described. Its performance is found to be better than that of other known methods.