Gossip-based signaling dissemination extension for next steps in signaling

In this paper, we propose a new gossip-based signaling dissemination method for the Next Steps in Signaling protocol family. In more detail, we propose to extend the General Internet Signaling Transport (GIST) protocol, so as to leverage these new dissemination capabilities from all NSIS Signaling Layer Protocol applications using its transport capabilities. The extension consists of two main procedures: a bootstrap procedure, during which new GIST-enabled nodes discover each other, and a dissemination procedure, which is used to effectively disseminate signaling messages within an Autonomous System. To this aim, we defined three dissemination models, bubble, balloon, and hose, so as to fulfill requirements of different network and service management scenarios. An experimental campaign carried out on GENI shows the effectiveness of the proposed solution.