Java Load Balancer Simulation ⚖️💻

This project is a Java-based Load Balancer Simulation that demonstrates how a load balancer distributes client requests to multiple servers using different load balancing algorithms.
It includes a Swing-based GUI 🎨 for real-time monitoring and control.

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✨ Features

• Three Load Balancing Algorithms ⚙️

  1. 🔄 Round Robin – Requests are distributed evenly in a circular order.
  2. 📉 Least Connections – Requests are assigned to the server with the fewest active connections.
  3. 🔢 IP Hashing – Requests are mapped to servers based on the client IP hash.

• Auto-Scaling 📈📉
  Automatically adds or removes server threads based on the average number of pending requests per server.

• Socket Programming 🌐
  Uses Java Sockets to send serialized UserRequest objects from clients to the load balancer.

• Thread-based Server Simulation 🧵
  Each server runs on its own thread and processes incoming requests from a shared BlockingQueue.

• Swing GUI 🖥️
  A Matrix-style control panel 💚🖤 that allows:

  • ➕ Adding/removing servers manually
  • 🔄 Switching between algorithms
  • 🚀 Toggling auto-scaling ON/OFF
  • 📊 Viewing real-time stats: current algorithm, total running servers, total requests handled

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🛠 Technologies & Concepts Used

• Java Socket Programming

  • 📡 ServerSocket for listening to incoming client connections
  • 📦 ObjectOutputStream / ObjectInputStream for sending and receiving serialized objects

• Object Serialization

  • 📄 UserRequest objects are serialized and sent over the network

• Multithreading

  • 🧵 Each server is a separate thread
  • 🚚 Dispatcher thread in the load balancer distributes requests to the appropriate server

• BlockingQueue (LinkedBlockingQueue)

  • 🗃️ Used to store incoming requests and allow thread-safe processing

• Swing GUI

  • 🎛️ JFrame, JButton, JToggleButton, JLabel for the control panel
  • 🎨 Styled with Matrix 💚 / black 🖤 theme

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📂 Project Structure

src/
├── 📄 Main.java                  – Sends UserRequest objects (Client simulation)
├── 📄 LoadBalancer.java          – Receives requests, distributes to servers
├── 📄 LoadBalancerConsoleUI.java – Swing control panel for managing servers & settings
├── 📄 Server.java                – Simulated server processing requests
├── 📄 UserRequest.java           – Serializable request object


📚 Key Learning Points
🧠 Understanding how load balancers work

🔄 Implementing different distribution algorithms

🌐 Using Java sockets to send serialized objects

🧵 Managing concurrency with threads and BlockingQueue

🎨 Creating a functional Swing GUI for system control