Re: [Sks-devel] Optimum number of peers

[Andy Ruddock]

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Ari Trachtenberg wrote:
> Gossip protocols exhibit a thresholding phenomenon.  If everyone talks to 
> greater than a certain
> fraction of their peers, data will propagate to everyone in the network.  If 
> everyone talks to less than
> this fraction, then very few network members will get all the data.  
> Unfortunately, this fraction depends
> on many parameters of the network ...we are working on some research that may 
> give some more
> concrete answers ... but it will take a bit.
>

For me this is the important issue, it would seem that the algorithm
used handles having many peers extremely well - in that it would appear
not to lead to excessive network usage.

I've tended to keep the number of peers I have to a small number and
have traditionally only peered with those who are geographically close
(generally speaking).

I think it may be advantageous to have a small number of geographically
distant peers to prevent this "thresholding phenomenon".

For this reason I think I shall seek to peer with one or two peers in
the North American continent, and one or two in Australia/New Zealand or
Southern/Eastern Asia.

If this is deemed to be suitable my membership details are :

keyserver.rainydayz.org 11370   # Andy Ruddock
<address@hidden> 0xEEC3AFB3


>
> On Apr 21, 2011, at 9:20 AM, Robert J. Hansen wrote:
>
>>> In theory an optimal value could be computed but there are
>>> too many parameters (e.g. network delay and bandwidth...
>>
>> Additionally, these parameters are in effect constants.  The SKS algorithm 
>> will have roughly logarithmic speed in propagating keys through the network: 
>> everything else (including how many peers you're connected with) affects it 
>> only by a constant factor.
>>
>> O(lg N) speed is *fast*.  Like, really, really fast.  So my suggestion: make 
>> sure you have at least two peers and you should be golden.  Trying to make 
>> it even faster is kind of like trying to put racing stripes and aftermarket 
>> body kits on a Saturn V rocket: you can do it if you really want to, but 
>> there's not much point.  :)
>>

- -- 
Andy Ruddock
- ------------
address@hidden (GPG Key ID 0xEEC3AFB3)

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