6 Interfaces

libp2p is a collection of several protocols working together to offer a common solid interface with talking with any other network addressable process. This is made possible by shimming current exist protocols and implementations through a set of explicit interfaces, from Peer Routing, Discovery, Stream Muxing, Transports, Connections and so on.

6.1 libp2p

libp2p, the top module that interfaces all the other modules that make a libp2p instance, must offer an interface for dialing to a peer and plugging in all of the modules (e.g. which transports) we want to support. We present libp2p interface and UX on setion 6.6, after presenting every other module interface.

6.2 Peer Routing

A Peer Routing service offers a way for libp2p Node to find the PeerInfo of another Node, so that it can dial to that node. In it is most pure form, a Peer Routing module should have a interface that given a 'key', a set of PeerInfos are returned. See https://github.com/diasdavid/abstract-peer-routing for the interface and tests.

6.3 Swarm

Current interface available and updated at:

https://github.com/diasdavid/js-libp2p-swarm#usage

6.4 Distributed Record Store

https://github.com/diasdavid/abstract-record-store

6.5 Peer Discovery

A Peer Discovery system interface should return PeerInfo objects, as it finds new peers to be considered to our Peer Routing schemes

6.6 libp2p interface and UX

libp2p implementations should enable for it to be instantiated programatically, or to use a previous compiled lib some of the protocol decisions already made, so that the user can reuse or expand.

Constructing libp2p instance programatically

Example made with JavaScript, should be mapped to other languages

var Libp2p = require('libp2p')

var node = new Libp2p()

// add a swarm instance
node.addSwarm(swarmInstance)

// add one or more Peer Routing mechanisms
node.addPeerRouting(peerRoutingInstance)

// add a Distributed Record Store
node.addDistributedRecordStore(distributedRecordStoreInstance)

Configuring libp2p is quite straight forward since most of the configuration comes from instantiating the several modules, one at each time.

Dialing and Listening for connections to/from a peer

Ideally, libp2p uses its own mechanisms (PeerRouting and Record Store) to find a way to dial to a given peer

node.dial(PeerInfo)

To receive an incoming connection, specify one or more protocols to handle

node.handleProtocol('<multicodec>', function (duplexStream) {

})

Finding a peer

Finding a peer functionality is done through Peer Routing, so the interface is the same.

Storing and Retrieving Records

Like Finding a Peer, Storing and Retrieving records is done through Record Store, so the interface is the same.

3.4 KiB Raw Blame History