Epidemic Dissemination for Probabilistic Data Storage

H. Miranda, S. Leggio, L. Rodrigues, K. Raatikainen.

In Global Data Management, Volume 8, Emerging Communication: Studies on New Technologies and Practices in Communication, R. Baldoni, G. Cortese, F. Davide and A. Melpignano (eds.), July 2006, IOS Press. ISBN: 1-58603-629-7.

Abstract

In Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks (MANETs) we are often faced with the problem of sharing information among a (potentially large) set of nodes. The replication of data items among different nodes of a MANET is an efficient technique to increase data availability and improve the latency of data access. However, an efficient replication scheme requires a scalable method to disseminate updates. The robustness and scalability of gossip (or epidemic) protocols make them an efficient tool for message dissemination in large scale wired and wireless networks. This chapter describes a novel algorithm to replicate and retrieve data items among nodes in a MANET that is based on a epidemic dissemination scheme. Our approach is tailored to the concrete network environment of MANETs and, while embedding several ideas from existing gossip protocols, takes into account the topology, scarcity of resources, and limited availability of both the devices and the network links in this sort of networks.

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