ADAPTIVE LOAD BALANCING WITH BIDIRECTIONAL PIGGYBACKING

Computer network technology is no longer experimental. Having come of age, this technology is now both practical and necessary. Downsizing o f computers and open and high-speed networks have required multimedia processing as well as traditional data processing on a networked syste m connected by various types of computers. However, in current network systems, users are responsible for job submission, while simultaneous ly considering what and where the necessary and available resources ar e. This will create a heavier burden in the future. A framework-of loa d balancing with distributed dispatchers that uses-an analysis of netw ork delay and job characteristics is proposed here. Examining an adapt ive load balancing scheme with bidirectional piggybacking permits basi c study of this framework. First a bidirectional piggybacking is propo sed that uses the results of a job as an information carrier for a rem ote server and that uses the request of a job as an information carrie r for a local server. We also propose a load balancing scheme using bi directional piggybacking. This scheme is then compared with other sche mes on homogeneous and heterogeneous environments with and without com munication delay. Finally, the reliability of piggybacked information on the arrival rate of local/remote job, communication delay, etc. are discussed. The effects of this scheme based on bidirectional piggybac king are also discussed.