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https://github.com/libp2p/go-libp2p-kad-dht/issues/147

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libp2p DHT modes - Client/Server

  • Client mode is default
  • Well, it really query-only mode (mostly) versus full mode. The active side is actually the “client” (making requests), the “server” just responds to requests.
  • Given enough bad nodes, a DHT becomes unusable.
  • we have a ton of nodes behind NATs
    1. Make outbound connections to insert themselves into the DHT.
    2. Cannot accept inbound connections, making it hard to actually traverse the DHT.
  • nodes behind NATs won’t be pingable (so they’ll be dropped from routing tables pretty quickly).
  • clients are “passive” nodes, this is how it’s done in BitTorrent.
  • DHT nodes that have just started may not provide particularly useful responses to some queries
  • https://github.com/libp2p/go-libp2p-kad-dht/issues/349
    • The DHT needs the ability to switch between server and client mode.
      • If a peer becomes undialable for some reason, they should move to being only a client, but if a peer becomes dialable and suitable for being a full dht node, they should be able to without rebooting.

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libp2p functions to use:

// returns the diversity stats for the Routing Table.
IpfsDHT.GetRoutingTableDiversityStats()
// allows introspection of the operation mode of the DHT
// Client & Server modes; Server mode allows for answering queries
IpfsDHT.Mode()
// looks for a peer with a given ID connected to this dht and returns the peer and the table it was found in
IpfsDHT.FindLocal(id peer.ID) peer.AddrInfo
host.Peerstore().Peers()

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AutoNAT

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libp2p RPC

  • github.com/libp2p/go-libp2p-gorpc
  • provides RPC support on top of libp2p in the same way that net/rpc does on HTTP

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Third-party tutorials

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libp2p concepts

  • Host
    • contains all the core functionalities you require connecting one peer to another
    • contains ID, which is an identity of the peer
  • Stream
    • communication channel between two peers
  • Peerstore