roundlink

Roundlink is a term used in information technology to describe a family of round-based connection methods and software abstractions that organize communication into discrete exchange cycles. It is not a standardized protocol, but rather a concept found in multiple experimental projects aimed at reducing latency and improving resilience in bidirectional communications.

In a roundlink model, communication proceeds in rounds. Each round defines a bounded window in which a node can send control messages and data intended for the other party, followed by acknowledgments in the same or subsequent rounds. A link is established through a sequence of rounds—OPEN, NEGOTIATE, CONFIRM—until both sides agree on parameters such as sequencing, reliability, and data rate. Data is typically carried in small, pipelined units to minimize head-of-line blocking. Some implementations employ multi-path or path diversity across multiple underlying transports and apply round-robin scheduling of in-flight messages to balance latency and fairness.

Implementation is typically in user-space libraries for languages such as C, C++, or Rust and is intended to run over existing transport layers (UDP, with optional reliability, or TCP). Use cases include real-time collaboration, online gaming, and sensor networks where predictable latency and graceful handling of loss are important. Because roundlink is not standardized, projects vary in terminology and specifics, and interoperability is limited.

See also round-robin, handshake, multi-path, streaming.