Load Balancing for Network Based Multi-threaded Applications

In this paper we present Lbs, a load-management-system for network based concurrent computing. The system is built on Pt-Pvm, a library based on the PVM system. Pt-Pvm provides message passing and process management facilities at thread and process level for a cluster of workstations running the UNIX operating system. The presented system is realized as an open library which can be easily used to implement new load-balancing algorithms. In addition to that, the unit of load which has to be distributed (either data or lightweight processes) can be transparently adapted to application needs. Therefore the system serves as an ideal test-bed for comparing different load-balancing methods.