A note on \The Limited Performance Bene ts of Migrating Active Processes for Load Sharing"

The 1988 paper, \The Limited Performance Bene ts of Migrating Active Processes for Load Sharing," by Eager, Lazowska and Zahorjan concludes that migrating active processes for load balancing o ers little additional performance bene t beyond that obtained using only remote execution (placement). This result is based on analysis and simulation of a system model that is intended to overestimate the performance bene t of migrating active processes. This report examines the system model used by Eager, Lazowska and Zahorjan and concludes (1) that it does not describe many systems, like networks of workstations, to which its results have been applied, and (2) that it underestimates the potential performance bene t of migrating active processes.