difference between load balancing and load sharing

sharma16031981 · ‎03-03-2010

Hello friends,

Please could someone differentiate between load sharing and loadbalancing with some example.

Thanks,

Hemant

Ganesh Hariharan · ‎03-03-2010

Hello friends,

Please could someone differentiate between load sharing and loadbalancing with some example.

Thanks,

Hemant

Hi Hemant,

Load sharing means one can split the traffic from a network to be transported by different routers (paths). That's exactly what Cisco does with MHSRP. The document on Configuring Multichassis Multilink PPP states that when it tells it to configure half of the hosts with one default gateway and the second half with the other. Eg: PBR configuration in routers for link distribution for host subnets.

On the other hand, load balancing means distributing the traffic evenly and dynamically among different paths to avoid link congestion and saturation. This can be done in a packet-by-packet basis or per destination in a round-robin fashion. The packets sent by a host follow different paths to the same destination. All paths belong to all hosts.

Hope to help !!

Remember to rate the helpful post

Ganesh.H

milan.kulik · ‎03-03-2010

Hi,

as you can see, many documents use those terms as synonyms.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/tech/tk365/technologies_configuration_example09186a00800945bf.shtml

e.g.

The Ciscopress CEF book says:

"Many people use the terms load sharing a load balancing to refer to the same option. However, with the term load balancing, many expect to have equal distributed loads across multiple paths. This book uses the term load sharing to describe more accurately what occurs with CEF and fast switching. In essence, load sharing is transmitting packets to a destination IP address over more than one path."

So as you see, every author can define his exact definition ot those terms.

BR,

Milan

joshiaroon · ‎03-03-2010

Load balancing meaning balancing the traffice flow within the router. for ex, we can use load balancing protocols like HSRP, VRRP or GLBP.

load sharing it the method of sharing traffic in the path. we can use either per packet or per destination .

In the attached drawing 1, the two LAN router load balance the load of default gateway using HSRP.

Regarding load sharing, the traffic to destionation can go through either path 1 or 2,3 .