What is the role and purpose of an L3 level load balancer in distributed system architecture?

The Layer 3 (network layer) load balancer is responsible for distributing traffic based on IP addresses and transport layer protocols (TCP/UDP). In distributed system architecture, it ensures packet routing between clients and servers, balancing load across nodes to improve fault tolerance and performance. Unlike Layer 4 or Layer 7 load balancers, Layer 3 operates at the network packet level, not analyzing application content, which allows it to be faster and simpler but less flexible.