Difference Between Load Balancing and Load Sharing in Distributed System

In the field of information technology, load balancing and load sharing are often used synonymously. If you lack a background in systems, you won't necessarily care about the details or understand the distinction between the two concepts. However, you will be interested in the reasons why your company's website crashes, why there are frequent server outages in a network, and other issues that affect the efficiency of your firm. The difference between load balancing and load sharing might assist you comprehend the justifications or requirements for implementing certain network modifications.

What is Load Balancing?

Every downloaded picture or line of text, as well as every inquiry on a website, all constitute data that must be sent to and processed by the servers hosting the website, so using bandwidth until the transaction is complete.

It optimises throughput and decreases server response time for incoming requests. It spreads traffic load among various pathways on a network in order to prevent a website from being overloaded.

This sort of load balancing might be physical or virtual, using genuine parallel servers or a virtual private server. The load balancers perform health checks on the servers and may remove substandard servers from the network for repair. In addition, there are varieties of load balancers that may build additional virtual servers to accommodate website demand.

Advantages:

• Big Data - Businesses may evaluate actionable insights from big data offered by global users to make better, more informed choices.
• Improve Efficiency - Load Balancers reduce the increasing server load and ensure smooth operations and replies, hence enhancing the customer experience.
• Predictive Analysis - Software load balancers may anticipate traffic bottlenecks before they arise in reality.
• Resilience - Defective and underperforming components may be rapidly replaced with little or no downtime, giving information on which equipment need servicing.
• Security- Load Balancer gives an additional degree of protection to your website and apps without needing any modifications.

Disadvantages:

• Increased complexity: It adds another layer of complexity to a network, which may make troubleshooting and management more challenging.
• Single point of failure: if the load balancer fails, the system as a whole may fail.
• Increased latency: As requests are directed via the load balancer before being forwarded to the proper server, it might introduce extra delay into the system.

What is Load Sharing?

Load sharing involves delivering a part of the traffic to one server and another piece to another server. The loads do not need to be identical; rather, they must be distributed so as not to overwhelm the whole system.

It is inherent to the process of servers passing data to endpoint devices. In general, algorithms prefer to direct more traffic to routes that they judge to be more efficient. Consider two connections to a website's servers, one of which provides 300 Mbps and the other of which transmits 150 Mbps.

An algorithm intended to follow load sharing will transmit one packet of data over the second connection for every two packets delivered over the first link. Therefore, the emphasis is not on using the same amount of bandwidth on both connections, but rather on utilising the amount that each link can properly manage.

Advantages:

• Increased scalability: It allows multiple servers to handle requests, which means that the system can handle a larger number of requests and can scale more easily.
• Improved availability: By distributing requests across multiple servers, it can improve the availability of a service, as the failure of one server will not bring down the entire system.
• Increased performance: It can improve the performance of a service by distributing requests across multiple servers, which can reduce the load on any one server and improve response times.
• Improved security: By distributing requests across multiple servers, it can improve the security of a service, as the failure of one server will not bring down the entire system.

Disadvantages:

• Limited control: Depending on the load sharing implementation, it may not provide the granular control over traffic routing that you need.
• Stateful nature: Some load sharing solutions may not handle the stateful traffic properly, which can lead to session loss or other issues.
• Misconfiguration: Incorrect configuration of the load sharing can lead to poor performance or even a complete system failure.
• Lack of uniform distribution: It may not always lead to a uniform distribution of resources among servers.
• Dependency: It relies on all servers being functional, if one goes down it can affect the performance and availability of the system.

Load Balancing vs. Load Sharing

Conclusion

In conclusion, load balancing and load sharing are both techniques used to distribute requests or workloads across multiple servers, but they do it in different ways.

It is a method of distributing incoming network traffic across multiple servers by directing the traffic to the server that is best equipped to handle it. It aims to evenly distribute the incoming traffic across servers to avoid overloading any one server, and to ensure that all servers are being used efficiently. On the other hand, Load sharing is a method of distributing workloads or processes across multiple servers by dividing the workload among the servers. The goal is to share the workload among servers to improve performance, scalability and availability of the system.

Related Questions

1. Can load balancing and load sharing be used together?

Yes, load balancing and load sharing can be used together to achieve a balance between distributing traffic and workloads across multiple servers.

2. How does load balancing affect the performance of a system?

It can improve the performance of a system by distributing traffic evenly across servers, reducing the load on any one server and improving response times.

3. How does load sharing affect the performance of a system?

It can improve the performance of a system by distributing workloads among multiple servers, which can improve the system's overall performance, scalability, and availability.

4. Is load balancing only used for network traffic?

It is primarily used for network traffic, but it can also be used for other types of traffic such as application traffic or database traffic.