The MPLS WG Archive

[Chris Kuszmaul <fyodor@pluris.com>]

 Using reasonable definitions, load balancing translates into profits for
providers. Mind you, I have yet to see a very satisfactory definition of load
balancing, perhaps because it is intuitively obvious.

  I define load balancing as follows:

   The act of allocating resources of a distributed system, or distributing
the demands on those resources,  to minimize the largest utilization for any
given subset of the distributed system. (compare to Entropy, and Minimax)

 Providers make their money by selling bandwidth. Load balancing offers an
ability to increase available bandwidth with no equipment cost.

Chrysostomos Tziouvaras wrote:

> Dear all,
> Going through the sites of some manufacturers I noticed that most of them
> advertise that their products guarantee a balanced network. But I
> donnot understand why a provider(buyer) should be interested to keep its
> network balanced. I think that his goal is to maximize his profit.
> So what's the importance of load balancing in networks from the
> provider's perspective?
>
> Regards
> Chrysostomos