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.