Analysis of a gossip protocol in PRISM

Abstract

Gossip protocols have been proposed as a robust and efficient method for disseminating information throughout dynamically changing networks. We present an analysis of a gossip protocol using probabilistic model checking and the tool PRISM. Since the behaviour of these protocols is both probabilistic and nondeterministic in nature, this provides a good example of the exhaustive, quantitative analysis that probabilistic model checking techniques can provide. In particular, we compute minimum and maximum values, representing the best- and worst-case performance of the protocol under any scheduling, and investigate both their relationship with the average values that would be obtained through simulation and the precise scheduling which achieve these values.