DICOM Load Balancer (WIP)

A scalable, high-performance DICOM load-balancer and router designed for medical imaging workflows. This solution provides zero-downtime operation for PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication System) environments, supporting advanced routing rules, automated health-checks, and seamless integration into any medical-imaging infrastructure.

Features

• High-Performance Load Balancing: Efficiently distribute DICOM traffic across multiple PACS nodes
• Zero-Downtime Operation: Ensure continuous service availability for critical medical imaging workflows
• Advanced Routing Rules: Route DICOM studies based on modality, body part, institution, and other DICOM tags
• Automated Health Checks: Continuously monitor destination nodes and automatically redirect traffic from failed nodes
• Horizontal Scaling: Deploy multiple instances for increased throughput and reliability
• Comprehensive Metrics: Monitor performance, throughput, and system health with detailed metrics
• DICOM Compliance: Full compatibility with DICOM standards for seamless integration

Architecture

This project combines HAProxy for TCP load balancing with DCMTK tools for DICOM processing. The architecture includes:

1. Frontend Service (HAProxy): Listens on port 11112 for incoming DICOM connections
2. Routing Logic (Lua): Parses DICOM headers and routes traffic based on modality and other DICOM tags
3. Backend Services: Multiple DICOM storage nodes available for routing traffic
4. Health Monitoring: Automated health checks to ensure backends are available

Requirements

• Docker/Podman for container deployment
• Basic understanding of DICOM and PACS architecture

Installation

Using Docker/Podman

1. Clone this repository:

   git clone https://github.com/your-username/dicom-loadbalancer.git
   cd dicom-loadbalancer
   

2. Build the container:

   make build
   

3. Run the container:

   make run
   

Configuration

HAProxy Configuration

The main configuration file is located at config/haproxy.cfg. This file defines:

• Frontend and backend services
• TCP listening ports
• Health check parameters
• DICOM routing rules

DICOM Routing

DICOM routing is implemented in scripts/parser.lua. This Lua script:

• Extracts relevant DICOM tags from incoming requests
• Applies routing rules based on modality, SOP Class UID, patient ID, etc.
• Routes traffic to appropriate backends based on these rules

Example routing rules:

• CT images → CT servers
• MR images → MR servers
• Patient-based load balancing → General servers 1-3

Testing

The project includes a directory for DICOM samples that can be used for testing:

make run

This will start the container with the sample DICOM directory mounted.

Dashboard & Monitoring

The HAProxy stats dashboard is available at:

http://localhost:8404/stats

Default credentials: admin:yourpassword (configurable in haproxy.cfg)

Development

Project Structure

• config/ - Configuration files for HAProxy
• scripts/ - Lua scripts for DICOM routing and forwarding
• dicom-samples/ - Test DICOM files
• Dockerfile - Container definition using Alpine Linux and DCMTK
• Makefile - Build and run commands
• entrypoint.sh - Container startup script

Version Management

The project uses semantic versioning. To bump the version:

make bump-version

License

See the LICENSE file for details.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

1. Fork the repository
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some amazing feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request