title: Is there a way to leverage the Bittorrent DHT for small data
body: <p>I have a situation where I have a series of mostly connected nodes that need to sync a pooled dataset.  They are files from 200-1500K and update at irregular intervals between 30min to 6hours depending on the environment.  Right now the numbers of nodes are in the hundreds, but ideally, that will grow.</p>
  
  <p>Currently, I am using libtorrent right now to keep a series of files in sync between a cluster of nodes.  I do a dump every few hours and create a new torrent based on the prior one.  I then associate it using the strategy of BEP 38.  The infohash is then posted to a known entry in the DHT where the other nodes poll to pick it up.</p>
  
  <p>I am wondering if there is a better way to do this.  The reason I like BitTorrent was originally for firmware updates. I do not need to worry about nodes less than awesome connectivity, and with the DHT it can self assemble reasonably well. It was then extended to sync these pooled files. </p>
  
  <p>I am currently trying to see if I can make an extension that would allow me to have each node do an <code>announce_peer</code> for each new record.  Then in theory interested parties would be able to listen for that.  That brings up two big issues:  </p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>How do I let the interested nodes know that there is new data?</li>
  <li>If I have a thousand or more nodes adding new infohashes every few minutes what will that do to the DHT?</li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>I will admit it feels like I am trying to drive a square peg into a round hole, but I really would like to keep as few protocols in play at a time.</p>