A fuzzy-based distributed load balancing algorithm for large distributed systems

The paper presents a new approach to load balancing for large distributed systems. The approach characterizes the global state uncertainty inherent in a large distributed system in terms of the fuzzy set theory and presents a fuzzy-based distributed load balancing algorithm that explicitly reflects the effect of the uncertainty in the decision making process. The notion of linguistic variables is used to model state variables that have imprecise and uncertain state values and fuzzy control to estimate the amount of consistency relaxation from the states of uncertainty sources. A fuzzy-based consistency model provides a mechanism that allows each node to make flexible scheduling and state update decisions based on the estimated degree of consistency relaxation. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm yields a better performance, substantially reduces the number of messages required, and generally transfers fewer tasks, compared to two conventional distributed load balancing algorithms