Counter-based reliability optimization for gossip-based broadcasting

Gossip-based broadcasting has recently gained popularity as a potentially effective solution for disseminating information in large-scale distributed applications. In this paper we propose a simple counter-based optimization for gossip-based broadcast protocols, aimed at enhancing reliability in the face of node failures. The basic idea is to have each node retransmit a broadcast message when the node has received the same message only a few times; a node thus can autonomously perceive the status of message dissemination and promote it when necessary. The usefulness of the technique is demonstrated through simulation results. (C) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.