Web Server Load Balancing Mechanism with Least Connection Algorithm and Multi-Agent System

Abstract

Demands for information over the Internet massively increase through the continuous expansion of website applications. Therefore, generating powerful and efficient server architecture for web servers is a must to satisfy Internet users and avoid the overloaded system. The research focuses on developing a new mechanism for load balancing to distribute incoming HTTP requests in website applications by combining the Least Connection algorithm and Multi-Agent System (LC-MAS). The proposed mechanism distributes the request based on load condition and the fewest number of active connections. The research applies virtualization technology to build servers on this proposed mechanism. The architecture is built inside a physical server with Proxmox as virtualization management and Linux Debian 7.11 as an operating system. Then, the research is tested in two scenarios (LCMAS and LC) using 500, 1,000, and 1,500 requests. The performance of this proposed mechanism is measured through the values of average response time, throughput, and error percentage. The results show that the proposed mechanism (LC-MAS) distributes the workload more equally than LC, with an average response time for 1,500 requests of 1338.8 milliseconds, 20.07% error, and 125 transactions per second. The LC-MAS makes the website application performance much better when the request increases. The LC-MAS helps in the utilization of system resources and improves system robustness.