Adaptive Gravitational Gossip: A Gossip-Based Communication Protocol with User-Selectable Rates

Gossip-based communication protocols are attractive in cases where absolute delivery guarantees are not required due to their scalability, low overhead, and probabilistically high reliability. In earlier work, a gossip-based protocol known as gravitational gossip was created that allows the selection of quality ratings within subgroups based on workload and information update frequency. This paper presents an improved protocol that adds an adaptive component that matches the actual subgroup communication rates with desired rates coping with network variations by modifying underlying gossip weights. The protocol is designed for use in environments where many information streams are being generated and interest levels vary between nodes in the system. The gossip-based protocol is able to allow subscribers to reduce their expected workload in return for a reduced information rate. The protocol is a good fit for applications such as military information systems, sensor networks, and rescue operations. Experiments were conducted in order to compare the merits of different adaptation mechanisms. Experimental results show promise for this approach.