$$ \newcommand \WS {\mathrm{WS}} \newcommand \PtoP {\mathrm{P2P}} $$

Peer Management

The node’s peer discovery is based on either:

  • A Phonebook, for the Relay Network \( \WS \), with initial addresses of relay nodes from the Algorand service record (SRV),

  • A PeerStore, for the Peer-to-Peer Network \( \PtoP \).

📎 EXAMPLE

For the Algorand MainNet Phonebook bootstrapping, the DNS is mainnet.algorand.network and the service record is algobootstrap. The MainNet SRV can be queried with:

dig _algobootstrap._tcp.mainnet.algorand.network SRV

Both tracks addressData, which contains:

  • retryAfter, the time to wait before retrying to connect to the address,

  • recentConnectionTimes, the log of connection times used to observe the maximum connections to the address in a given time window,

  • networkNames, lists the networks to which the given address belongs,

  • role, is the role that this address serves (relay or archival),

  • persistent, set to true for peers whose record should not be removed from the peer container.

The Phonebook tracks rate-limiting info and the addressData for each address.

The PeerStore serves as a unified interface that combines functionality from both the standard peerstore and the CertifiedAddrBook components in libp2p.

The peerstore aggregates most essential peer management interfaces, including peer addition and removal, metadata, keys, and metrics. However, it only exposes the basic addrBook interface for address storage.

The CertifiedAddrBook, on the other hand, extends the capabilities of the addrBook by supporting self-certified peer records. The peer itself signs these records and includes a TTL (time-to-live), which defines how long the record is valid before expiring. This means a peer’s information may exist both in an uncertified (vanilla) and a certified form, with potentially different expiration semantics.

By merging these two, the PeerStore enables advanced peer address management, including the ability to store, retrieve, update, and delete certified peer entries, ensuring that signed peer records are handled with appropriate verification and lifecycle rules.

⚙️ IMPLEMENTATION