What is the primary role of a Load Balancer in networking?

The primary role of a load balancer in networking is to distribute incoming requests across multiple servers. This function enhances the overall performance and reliability of applications by ensuring no single server becomes overwhelmed with too many requests. By intelligently distributing traffic, load balancers help prevent server overload, which can lead to slow response times or downtime.

Moreover, load balancers can facilitate redundancy and high availability in a network environment. If one server goes down, the load balancer can redirect traffic to the remaining operational servers, thus maintaining service continuity for users. This ability not only improves resource utilization but also contributes to a seamless user experience by minimizing the chances of service interruption.

The other options relate to specific aspects of network security and access control, which are not the primary functions of a load balancer. While those elements are important in network management, they do not address the fundamental purpose of distributing network traffic efficiently.