An asymptotic analysis of a threshold load balancing policy

A specific threshold load-balancing policy is described and analyzed for distributed computer systems in which each node executes job according to a priority schedule that depends on where the job originates. An approximate analysis is carried out to obtain the mean response time performance of the system in closed-form expression. In the analysis, it is assumed that the job transfers between nodes are Poisson processes. It is proved that the Poisson assumption on the job transfers is asymptotically exact (and hence the performance predictions of the model is asymptotically exact) as the number of nodes in the system increases. Simulations studies reveal that the Poisson job transfer assumption is good for small systems containing several nodes when one is interested in obtaining the response time performance of the system