The Gossip Architecture

Terms

  • Client - Creator of messages, recipient of query results. Think "user". Interacts directly with Front End.
  • Front End (FE) - Mediator between client and replica managers.
  • Replica Manager (RM) - Individual server. Propagates (gossips) updates to other RMs and responds to queries from FEs.
  • timestamp - representation of the latest values accessed by the frontend (most recent query results). Could be a unique, sortable ID or a vector. RMs use timestamps to make sure they are up to date relative to each other.

Concepts and Goals

  • Front End ensures client doesn't receive too many updates. An FE is the only source of updates for a given client.
  • FE knows about one client, many RMs and neighboring FEs.

References

Academic Resources

Directional Gossip: Gossip in a Wide Area Network

A Gossip-Style Failure Detection Service

Gossip-based ad hoc routing

Peer-to-Peer Membership Management for Gossip-Based Protocols

Gossip-based computation of aggregate information

Gossip algorithms: design, analysis and applications abstract only

Gossip-based aggregation in large dynamic networks

changed July 1