Abstract: The allocation of workload in distributed systems has almost as many views as one would like. The attempt to find suitable structures to classify the different ways of solving this task can therefore reflect the underlying model only. In the following paper a three models is developed. The load model is used to describe the workload and its current distribution within the system. The action model defines for a given algorithm at any instant of time the eligible next step(s). And finally, the solution model shows the formal context for obtaining and evaluating the load distribution decisions. All three models and their interrelationship are illustrated by selected examples of existing load distribution approaches. The result of the following investigation is the recommendation that load distribution algorithms can be classified according the five criteria: objectives, type and amount of used information, the source of the distribution, the parameter time, and the initiating instance.