Gossip Protocol
Summary: A decentralized protocol for nodes in a cluster to disseminate information among themselves without relying on a central coordination service.
Sources: chapter6
Last updated: 2026-04-15
Some databases, like Cassandra and Riak, use a gossip protocol among the nodes to disseminate any changes in cluster state. (source: chapter6)
Characteristics
- Decentralization: Avoids the dependency on an external service like ZooKeeper for service-discovery. (source: chapter6)
- Complexity: Adds more complexity to the database nodes themselves but can be more resilient to certain types of failures. (source: chapter6)