Sprinkler: A probabilistic dissemination protocol to provide fluid user interaction in multi-device ecosystems

International audienceOffering fluid multi-device interactions to users while protecting their privacy largely remains an ongoing challenge. Existing approaches typically use a peer-to-peer design and flood session information over the network, resulting in costly and often unpractical solutions. In this paper, we propose Sprinkler, a decentralized probabilistic dissemination protocol that uses a gossip-based learning algorithm to intelligently propagate session information to devices a user is most likely to use next. Our solution allows designers to efficiently trade off network costs for fluidity, and is for instance able to reduce network costs by up to 80% against a flooding strategy while maintaining a fluid user experience