A method used by an egress router is disclosed. The egress router obtains a capacity index of an application server attached to the egress router. The egress router further obtains a load index describing a load measurement between the egress router and the application server during a certain time period. The egress router encodes the capacity index and the load index into a packet. The egress router transmits the packet to one or more routers in an Internet protocol (IP) network.