We consider a network consisting of $n$ nodes that aim to track a continually updating process or event. To disseminate updates about the event to the network, two sources are available, such that information obtained from one source is considered more reliable than the other source. The nodes wish to have access to information about the event that is not only latest but also more reliable, and prefer a reliable packet over an unreliable packet even when the former is a bit outdated with respect to the latter. We study how such preference affects the fraction of users with reliable information in the network and their version age of information. We derive the analytical equations to characterize the two quantities, long-term expected fraction of nodes with reliable packets and their long-term expected version age using stochastic hybrid systems (SHS) modelling and study their properties. We also compare these results with the case where nodes give more preference to freshness of information than its reliability. Finally we show simulation results to verify the theoretical results and shed further light on behavior of above quantities with respect to dependent variables.

翻译：我们考虑一个由$n$个节点组成的网络，这些节点旨在跟踪一个持续更新的过程或事件。为了向网络传播关于该事件的更新信息，提供了两个信源，其中从一个信源获取的信息被认为比另一个信源更可靠。节点希望获得关于事件的既最新又更可靠的信息，并且即使可靠的数据包相对于不可靠的数据包稍有过时，它们也更倾向于选择可靠的数据包。我们研究了这种偏好如何影响网络中拥有可靠信息的用户比例及其信息版本年龄。通过随机混合系统（SHS）建模，我们推导出描述长期预期可靠数据包节点比例及其长期预期版本年龄的解析方程，并研究了它们的性质。我们还将这些结果与节点更偏好信息新鲜度而非可靠性的情况进行了比较。最后，我们通过仿真结果验证了理论结果，并进一步揭示了上述量关于自变量的行为特征。