What is the purpose of the “Gossip protocol” in Cassandra?

The “Gossip protocol” in Cassandra is a protocol used for communication and data synchronization between nodes. It is used to maintain the communication topology between nodes in a cluster, ensuring consistency and availability of information between nodes. Through the Gossip protocol, nodes can regularly exchange status information such as node availability, data distribution, etc., enabling all nodes in the cluster to stay in sync. This effectively helps prevent single points of failure, improving the system’s availability and reliability. The Gossip protocol also helps nodes quickly discover new nodes or failed nodes, and promptly synchronize and redistribute data, enabling automatic scalability and fault tolerance of the cluster.