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ÐΞVp2p-Wire-Protocol.md

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DEV P2P Wire Protocol

Peer-to-peer communications between nodes running Ethereum/Whisper/&c. clients are designed to be governed by a simple wire-protocol making use of existing ÐΞV technologies and standards such as RLP wherever practical.

This document is intended to specify this protocol comprehensively.

Low-Level

ÐΞVp2p nodes may connect to each other over TCP only. Peers are free to advertise and accept connections on any port(s) they wish, however, a default port on which the connection may be listened and made will be 30303.

Though TCP provides a connection-oriented medium, ÐΞVp2p nodes communicate in terms of packets. These packets are formed as a 4-byte synchronisation token (0x22400891), a 4-byte "payload size", to be interpreted as a big-endian integer and finally an N-byte RLP-serialised data structure, where N is the aforementioned "payload size". To be clear, the payload size specifies the number of bytes in the packet ''following'' the first 8.

Payload Contents

There are a number of different types of payload that may be encoded within the RLP. This ''type'' is always determined by the first entry of the RLP, interpreted as an integer.

ÐΞVp2p is designed to support arbitrary sub-protocols (aka capabilities) over the basic wire protocol. Each sub-protocol is given as much of the message-ID space as it needs (all such protocols must statically specify how many message IDs they require). On connection and reception of the Hello message, both peers have equivalent information about what subprotocols they share (including versions) and are able to form consensus over the composition of message ID space.

Message IDs are assumed to be compact from ID 0x10 onwards (0x00-0x10 is reserved for ÐΞVp2p messages) and given to each shared (equal-version, equal name) sub-protocol in alphabetic order. Sub-protocols that are not shared are ignored. If multiple versions are shared of the same (equal name) sub-protocol, the numerically highest wins, others are ignored.

P2P

Hello [0x00: P, p2pVersion: P, clientId: B, [[cap1: B_3, capVersion1: P], [cap2: B_3, capVersion2: P], ...], listenPort: P, nodeId: B_64] First packet sent over the connection, and sent once by both sides. No other messages may be sent until a Hello is received.

  • p2pVersion Specifies the implemented version of the P2P protocol. Now must be 1.
  • clientId Specifies the client software identity, as a human-readable string (e.g. "Ethereum(++)/1.0.0").
  • cap Specifies a peer capability name as a length-3 ASCII string. Current supported capabilities are eth, shh.
  • capVersion Specifies a peer capability version as a positive integer. Current supported versions are 34 for eth, and 1 for shh.
  • listenPort specifies the port that the client is listening on (on the interface that the present connection traverses). If 0 it indicates the client is not listening.
  • nodeId is the Unique Identity of the node and specifies a 512-bit hash that identifies this node.

Disconnect [0x01: P, reason: P] Inform the peer that a disconnection is imminent; if received, a peer should disconnect immediately. When sending, well-behaved hosts give their peers a fighting chance (read: wait 2 seconds) to disconnect to before disconnecting themselves.

  • reason is an optional integer specifying one of a number of reasons for disconnect:
    • 0x00 Disconnect requested;
    • 0x01 TCP sub-system error;
    • 0x02 Breach of protocol, e.g. a malformed message, bad RLP, incorrect magic number &c.;
    • 0x03 Useless peer;
    • 0x04 Too many peers;
    • 0x05 Already connected;
    • 0x06 Incompatible P2P protocol version;
    • 0x07 Null node identity received - this is automatically invalid;
    • 0x08 Client quitting;
    • 0x09 Unexpected identity (i.e. a different identity to a previous connection/what a trusted peer told us).
    • 0x0a Identity is the same as this node (i.e. connected to itself);
    • 0x0b Timeout on receiving a message (i.e. nothing received since sending last ping);
    • 0x10 Some other reason specific to a subprotocol.

Ping [0x02: P] Requests an immediate reply of Pong from the peer.

Pong [0x03: P] Reply to peer's Ping packet.

NotImplemented (was GetPeers) [0x04: ...]

NotImplemented (was Peers) [0x05: ...]

Node identity and reputation

In a later version of this protocol, node ID will become the public key. Nodes will have to demonstrate ownership over their ID by interpreting a packet encrypted with their node ID (or perhaps signing a random nonce with their private key).

A proof-of-work may be associated with the node ID through the big-endian magnitude of the public key. Nodes with a great proof-of-work (public key of lower magnitude) may be given preference since it is less likely that the node will alter its ID later or masquerade under multiple IDs.

Nodes are free to store ratings for given IDs (how useful the node has been in the past) and give preference accordingly. Nodes may also track node IDs (and their provenance) in order to help determine potential man-in-the-middle attacks.

Clients are free to mark down new nodes and use the node ID as a means of determining a node's reputation. In a future version of this wire protocol, n

Example Packets

0x22400891000000088400000043414243

A Hello packet specifying the client id is "ABC".

Peer 1: 0x22400891000000028102

Peer 2: 0x22400891000000028103

A Ping and the returned Pong.

Session Management

Upon connecting, all clients (i.e. both sides of the connection) must send a Hello message. Upon receiving the Hello message and verifying compatibility of the network and versions, a session is active and any other P2P messages may be sent.

At any time, a Disconnect message may be sent.