Server Load Balancing with Network Support: Active Anycast

In server load balancing where replicated servers are dispersed geographically and accesses from clients are distributed to replicated servers, a way of distributing the accesses from clients to an adequate server plays an important role from the viewpoint of load balancing. In the paper, we propose a new network paradigm for server load balancing using active any cast. In active anycast, an end user only sends its request to group of servers using an anycast address. When this request arrives at an active router, it selects an adequate server from the viewpoint of load balancing and changes the anycast address of a packet to the unicast address of the selected server. Thus, the decision which server is the best one from the viewpoint of server load balancing is made by an active router rather than an end user, so active any cast is a network-initiated method. Simulation results show that active any cast can accomplish efficient server load balancing, even when a small part of routers are equipped with active network technology.