Reducing load distribution overhead with message aggregation

The current best effort approach to quality of service in the Internet can no longer satisfy a diverse variety of customer service requirements, because of which there is a need for alternative strategies. A promising approach for dealing with this problem is a method called the load distribution scheme (LDS) which dynamically adjusts the traffic load at the network boundary based on feedback from the network. In order to fairly share available resources among individual flows, the load distribution scheme relies on a message exchange protocol which in certain cases may cause significant overhead in the system. We examine the issues related to the problem of the message overhead in the LDS, propose solutions to the problem, and evaluate these solutions through simulation in OPNET.