A distributed approach for computing sum aggregation in P2P networks

In large-scale peer-to-peer (P2P) systems, epidemic or gossip-based protocols have become significant as an alternative to the hierarchical protocols due to their simplicity, robustness and scalability. In this study, we provide the details of the sum aggregation technique, namely atomic pairwise averaging, used in peer-to-peer networks. Various distributed services can utilize sum aggregation as a functional building. In contrast to previous studies, sum aggregate is computed indirectly by computing average aggregate along with the network size. By this technique, the requirement of checking if two peers have exchanged states before is eliminated. Moreover, analytical discussion of why the atomic pairwise averaging technique results in the average aggregate value of items at each peer is provided. Furthermore, simulation results of effects of network, as well as the effects of parameters are presented.