Load Balancing Appliance Connection Granularity
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Solution Overview
Problem
As the number of services and connections increases, identifying the service with the fewest connections becomes time-consuming, hampering load balancing performance, especially during peak times when it is most needed.
Innovation Solution
A load balancing appliance decreases the granularity of service selection by assigning identifiers to services based on the number or range of connections, allowing for more efficient distribution of requests to the service with the fewest connections, using a set of identifiers that distinguish between different ranges of connection numbers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If the load balancing appliance tracks the exact number of connections for each service to identify the service with the fewest connections, then the load balancing precision is improved, but the computation time increases as the number of services and connections increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the parameter of connection count precision by introducing granularity levels. Instead of tracking exact connection counts, the system tracks connection counts at different granularities (e.g., ranges of connections). This allows the system to maintain sufficient precision for load balancing decisions while reducing the computational complexity and time required to identify the service with the fewest connections.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the connection count tracking into different granularity levels. Rather than treating all connection counts uniformly, the system divides them into segments or ranges (e.g., 0-10, 11-50, 51-100 connections). This segmentation reduces the overall complexity of tracking and comparing connection counts across all services, thereby reducing computation time while maintaining adequate precision for load balancing.
2Reliability
If the load balancing appliance maintains detailed tracking of all service connections to ensure accurate fewest connections identification, then the load balancing accuracy is improved, but the system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the parameter of tracking detail by introducing granularity levels. Instead of maintaining detailed tracking of every individual connection count, the system tracks connection counts at aggregated granularity levels (e.g., ranges). This reduces the complexity of the tracking system while maintaining sufficient accuracy for load balancing decisions by preserving the ability to identify services with fewer connections.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the connection tracking system into different granularity levels. Rather than maintaining a single detailed tracking mechanism for all services, the system uses segmented tracking at multiple granularities. This segmentation reduces overall system complexity by allowing the use of coarser-grained tracking for most services while maintaining finer-grained tracking only where necessary for accurate load balancing.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods for load balancing services based on fewest connections by decreasing granularity of service selection as a number of fewest connections serviced by the services increases may include establishing, by an appliance, a set of identifiers corresponding to a number of connections serviced by a service, the set comprising a first plurality of identifiers each identifying a predetermined number of connections and a second plurality of identifiers each identifying a predetermined range of numbers of connections. The appliance assigns, to each service servicing connections, an identifier corresponding to the number of connections serviced by the service, at least one of the identifiers selected from the second plurality of identifiers. The appliance receives a request for a service, and forwards the request to a service assigned to the identifier corresponding to a fewest number of connections with at least one service assigned to the identifier.