Adaptive load-balancing algorithms using symmetric broadcast networks: performance study on an IBM SP2

In a distributed-computing environment, it is important to ensure that the processor workloads are adequately balanced. Among numerous load-balancing algorithms, a unique approach due to Das and Prasad defines a symmetric broadcast network (SBN) that provides a robust communication pattern among the processors in a topology-independent manner. In this paper, we propose and analyze three SBN-based load-balancing algorithms, and implement them on an SP2. A thorough experimental study with Poissondistributed synthetic loads demonstrates that these algorithms are very effective in balancing system load while minimizing processor idle time. They also compare favorably with several existing techniques.