Re: [Sks-devel] Optimum number of peers

[Jeff Johnson]

On Apr 23, 2011, at 2:14 PM, Andy Ruddock wrote:

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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".
> 

I suspect that avoiding the "thresholding phenomenon" isn't the right
basis for your reasoning. Nothing wrong with your reasoning
at all, all depends on what one chooses to optimize: in your
case you seem to want "robust global propagation" not "minimal necessary load"
as an optimization goal.

But that is merely a guess.

> 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
> 

For North American coverage, try peering here:
        keys.n3npq.net  11370
in a Tier IV data center with high availability and good bandwidth.

You are also welcome to peer with
        keys.rpm5.org   11370
which is an aging dual G5 on a (my) residence cable box.

Send along your membership information if interested.

73 de Jeff

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