Balancing

Balancing is defined as the distribution of new endpoints (a combination of unique source and destination IP address pairs) among the members of the cluster. The Oracle Communications Subscriber-Aware Load Balancer (OCSLB) balances traffic based upon its configured policies (refer to Load Balancer Policy Configuration for policy description and details), or, in the absence of configured policies, with a default round-robin procedure. Load balancer policies provide a flexible means of directing traffic to appropriate groups of OCSBCs. As initial packets arrive at the OCSLB from unknown (previously unseen) endpoints, they are passed to a resident software process that consults its policy engine to determine an appropriate destination (clustered OCSBC) for each endpoint. Regardless of the distribution algorithm, policy-based or round-robin, the OCSLB chooses an OCSBC from among all equally weighted candidates, giving preference to those with the lowest current occupancy rate, defined as the number of endpoints already present on that system relative to its maximum endpoint capacity.