Structured Gossip: A Partition-Resilient DNS for Internet-Scale Dynamic Networks

TL;DR

Structured Gossip DNS introduces a partition-resilient, scalable DNS solution for dynamic networks using passive stabilization and DHTs, significantly reducing message complexity while ensuring eventual consistency without global coordination.

Contribution

It presents a novel passive stabilization approach leveraging DHT finger tables to achieve scalable, partition-resilient DNS in large, dynamic networks.

Findings

Reduces message complexity from O(n) to O(n/log n)

Maintains O(log^2 n) convergence time

Guarantees eventual consistency without global coordination

Abstract

Network partitions pose fundamental challenges to distributed name resolution in mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs) and edge computing. Existing solutions either require active coordination that fails to scale, or use unstructured gossip with excessive overhead. We present \textit{Structured Gossip DNS}, exploiting DHT finger tables to achieve partition resilience through \textbf{passive stabilization}. Our approach reduces message complexity from $O(n)$ to $O(n/\log n)$ while maintaining $O(\log^2 n)$ convergence. Unlike active protocols requiring synchronous agreement, our passive approach guarantees eventual consistency through commutative operations that converge regardless of message ordering. The system handles arbitrary concurrent partitions via version vectors, eliminating global coordination and enabling billion-node deployments.