The dynamic behavior of a network in which information is changing continuously over time requires robust and efficient mechanisms for keeping nodes updated about new information. Gossip protocols are mechanisms for this task in which nodes communicate with one another according to some underlying deterministic or randomized algorithm, exchanging information in each communication step. In a variety of contexts, the use of randomization to propagate information has been found to provide better reliability and scalability than more regimented deterministic approaches. In many settings, such as a cluster of distributed computing hosts, new information is generated at individual nodes, and is most "interesting" to nodes that are nearby. Thus, we propose distance-based propagation bounds as a performance measure for gossip mechanisms: a node at distance d from the origin of a new piece of information should be able to learn about this information with a delay that grows slowly wit...
David Kempe, Jon M. Kleinberg, Alan J. Demers