A Stochastic Characterization of a Fault-Tolerant Gossip Algorithm

Abstract

Gossiping is a popular technique for probabilistic reliable multicast (or broadcast), whose service is often needed in reliable distributed computing and systems. However, existing analytic studies of gossip schemes are often based on ideas borrowed from epidemic models, and thus inherit some features that may not be appropriate for the setting of gossiping. Specifically, in epidemic spreading, an infected node typically intends to spread the infection an unbounded number of times (or rounds); whereas in gossiping, an infected node (i.e., a node having received the message in question) may prefer to gossip the message a bounded number of times. Motivated by this, we intend to understand the behavior of a simple abstraction and algorithm for a popular class of fault-tolerant gossip schemes.

A Framework for Understanding Botnets

“…In this paradigm, a process (or node) sends the message in question to a number of other processes (called "gossip partners" or "fan-out") appropriately selected from a set of processes (called "views"); each process that receives the message also sends the message to a randomly selected subset of processes, and so forth. Recently, we found [23] that the most desirable definition of "views" would be that the view of a node consists of its one-or multiplehop neighbors (we call "physical views"). The variant gossip technique investigated in [23] accommodates both "the number of times (or rounds) a node gossips a message" and "physical views" mentioned above.…”

“…Recently, we found [23] that the most desirable definition of "views" would be that the view of a node consists of its one-or multiplehop neighbors (we call "physical views"). The variant gossip technique investigated in [23] accommodates both "the number of times (or rounds) a node gossips a message" and "physical views" mentioned above. This makes it very attractive for realizing Botnet C&C because a bot only needs to know a very small number of other bots.…”