Braess-like paradoxes in distributed computer systems

We consider optimal distributed decisions in distributed computer systems. We identify a Braess-like paradox in which adding capacity to the system may degrade the performance of all users. Unlike the original Braess paradox, we show that this behavior occurs only in the case of finitely many users and not in the case of infinite number of users. keywords Braess paradox, Nash equilibrium, Wardrop equilibrium, performance optimization, distributed computer system, load balancing.