Analyzing Gossip Protocols for Reliable MANET Applications

The rapid increase of the number of mobile devices has been directing research and industry attention to Mobile Ad hoc wireless Networks (MANETs), mainly due to their adaptability and flexibility. In this context, gossip protocols have emerged as a powerful mechanism to develop highly scalable and reliable broadcast communication, but reliability, performance and efficiency are many times conflicting goals in these environments. In fact, a gossip protocol needs to be very carefully configured so that application and network requirements are met, which is a very complex task. In this paper, we experimentally evaluate a gossip protocol based on the popular eager-push cyclic strategy in a simulated mobile ad hoc wireless network and analyze the influence of configuration in reliability and overall performance. The results obtained help in understanding the complex behavior of gossip-based protocols and may be used to guide their configuration in MANETs, with respect to the reliability and overall performance of the communication.