roundrobins

Round robin is a term used across sports, computing, and networking to describe a cyclic allocation in which each participant or task receives an equal turn. In its broad sense, a round-robin arrangement aims to be fair by giving everyone the same opportunities.

In sports and games, a round-robin tournament requires every entrant to play every other entrant a set number of times, typically once per opponent in a single round-robin or twice in a double round-robin. Standings are usually determined by points earned for wins or draws, with tiebreakers such as head-to-head results, goal difference, or playoff matches. Round-robin formats contrast with knockout tournaments, where a losing participant is eliminated.

In computer science, round-robin scheduling assigns CPU time in a circular queue, granting each process a fixed time quantum. When the quantum expires, the process is moved to the back of the queue. The method is simple and fair in providing equal CPU shares, but it can cause longer wait times and excessive context switching under heavy load.

Round-robin DNS is a method of distributing network traffic by returning different IP addresses for a domain on successive queries. It is a basic form of load distribution but does not account for server health or session affinity, and therefore is often supplemented with more advanced load-balancing techniques.

The phrase round robin has historical use in petitions and signatory letters arranged in a circle, and was adopted to describe various rotating or all-together participation practices. Today it is used in sports, computing, and networking to imply equal participation or distribution.