Abstract

Traditionally dynamic load balancing is applied in resource-reserved connection-oriented networks with a large degree of managed control. Load balancing in connectionless networks is rather rudimentary and is either static or requires network-wide load information. This paper presents a fully automated, traffic driven dynamic load balancing mechanism that uses local load information. The proposed mechanism is easily deployed in a multi-vendor environment in which only a subset of routers supports the function. The Dynamic Localized Load Balancing (DLLB) mechanism distributes traffic based on two sets of weights. The first set is fixed and is inverse proportional to the path cost, typically the sum of reciprocal bandwidths along the path. The second weight reflects the utilization of the link to the first next hop along the path, and is therefore variable. The ratio of static weights defines the ideal load distribution, the ratio of variable weights the node-local load distribution estimate. By minimizing the difference between variable and fixed ratios the traffic distribution, with the available node-local knowledge, is optimal. The above mechanism significantly increases throughput and decreases delay from a network-wide perspective. Optionally the variable weight can include load information of nodes downstream to prevent congestion on those nodes. The latter function further improves network performance, and is easily implemented on top of the standard OSPF signaling. The mechanism does not require many node resources and can be implemented on existing router platforms.

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