A comprehensive and systematic review of the load balancing mechanisms in the Internet of Things

Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a network of different objects that refers to an environment in which intelligent devices around us can connect to the Internet and exchange information together. A large number of generated events from IoT objects causes overhead on the network. Therefore, to optimize the usage of IoT network, it is essential to provide solutions for network problems including scalability, routing, reliability, security, energy conservation, network lifetime, congestion, heterogeneity, and quality of service (QoS). In this regard, load balancing as an efficient method takes a significant role in distributing loads among different routes. Imbalance traffic load across the network causes high latency in some routes and loss of data packets and decreases packet delivery ratio. Although load balancing has a critical importance in the IoT, there is still a lack of an organized and comprehensive review about analyzing and examining its remarkable methods. Therefore, this paper by adopting a systematic manner aims to address this gap. In this research, the load balancing methods are categorized into two main categories including centralized and distributed and their merits and demerits are specified. Moreover, vital parameters, the challenges, and open issues in this scope are also discussed. Thus, future authors will be able to develop more effective load balancing mechanisms.