A combination of game theory and genetic algorithm for load balancing in distributed computer systems

Abstract

High demand of computation and communication in recent decades has increased the importance of distributed computer systems. Because of the heterogeneity of resources, resource management is one of the main challenges in designing distributed computer systems. In this paper, a new method has been proposed for solving load balancing problem in distributed computer systems using game theory and a genetic algorithm. The load balancing problem has been modelled as a non-cooperative game among users of the system. The payoff function of players was computed using an introduced parameter in order to decrease the users' expected response time. Certain Nash equilibriums are unstable in a multi agent problem. Thus, a genetic algorithm based on the concept of Nash equilibrium is used for solving the load balancing game. Simulation results show the performance of the proposed load balancing algorithm in terms of the expected response time and fairness index as parameters in evaluating the performance of load balancing algorithms.