A methodology for evaluating load balancing algorithms

In general, a load balancing algorithm improves a system performance. Obviously, larger the difference between the task arrival rates at various processors, more the system is imbalanced and more improvement in the system performance is achieved using a load balancing algorithm. The existing works which have used an experimental technique to show the improvement in the system performance under a load balancing algorithm have used an ad hoc procedure to select the task arrival rates for various processors. Thus, their experimental results necessarily may not provide a complete picture of the improvement in the system performance under their load balancing algorithms. The authors present a systematic scheme for the selection of the task arrival rates at various processors such that experimental results reflect a complete picture of the improvement in the system performance under a load balancing algorithm. The idea has been motivated by the well-known Taguchi technique used in quality control