Portal Implementers Call #50 - April 7th

Protocol Calls & happenings
1

Meeting Info

Agenda

  • Team updates

GitHub Issue

2

This week’s call notes:

1. Team update

  • Update by Piper

    • Working on history expiry coordination & organization
    • In early onboarding phase for history state spec

  • Update on Trin & Glados by Kolby

    • e2hs update
      • Fixed an invalid BlockIndex type in e2hs
      • Pre-merge e2hs files generated & uploaded, except some minor bugs
      • Once fixed, e2hs file will replace era1, with plan to sync up to the chain head minus ~27h
    • Fixed a bug where the discv5 ENR cache was to small to handle 500+ or more active peers by scaling the cache size to match the max number of sessions
      • A cleaner upstream fix coming soon via the discv5 lib
    • Glados
      • Updated Glados to support ethportal-api 0.6.0 which incl. ping extension
      • Fixing the census issue, which now works even without online nodes

  • Update on Fluffy by Kim

    • Updated ping endpoint to support ping extension
    • Worked on async EVM improvement and investigating segfault/ bugs in CI tests
    • Protocol versioning
      • Progressing on protocol versioning, but blocked by an unexpected compiler bug
      • Need to update discv5 for protocol versioning to properly handle ENR access during request/ response
        • Plan to store ENR in session cache for reliable access
    • Implemented the changes of accept codes and add varient size prefix
      • Investigating a clean solution to manage versioning info along with the encoding/ decoding process

  • Update on Ultralight by ScottyPoi

    • Working on protocol versioning, added initial support but v1 features not yet active
      • Current priority: Finish the v1 changes implementation
    • Progressed on history expiry support within EthereumJS team
    • Plan to revamp boot node setup, shifting from 2 overloaded VMs to multiple smaller VMs, for better performance and reliability
    • Merged a Tauri-based web interface project built on Ultralight by Justin, currently allowing basic RPC lookups

  • Update on Samba by Meld

    • Implemented SSZ union removal
    • Fixed a bug in the putContent JSON-RPC endpoint, which is related to the utp lib usage
    • Passed local Hive tests against Trin, still debugging remaining test failures
    • Plan to begin regular biweekly sync with Besu team for planning and coordination

  • Update on Shisui by Grapebaba

    • Merged PRs, incl. implementation on accept codes and protocol versioning
    • Implemented add size prefix in FindContent
    • Fixed the FindNodes response bug, due to packet too long
    • Added rate limiting policy, where gossips are dropped when resource usage exceeds the limit
    • Fixed discv5 whoareyou response issue in Geth, through in Hive tests still see issues when communicating with Fluffy nodes
      • The issue with Fluffy nodes
        • When two portal requests are sent simultaneously before a session is established, only the 1st succeeds and the 2nd fails
        • eg. Fluffy’s background Ping (for node revalidation) races with test-triggered FindContent, would cause one to fail
      • Potential solution
        • Queuing on Fluffy side: Queue the concurrent requests until the session is setup
        • Retry logic: Clients could retry dropped requests automatically
        • Test adjustment: Modify Hive test to better reflect real-world behavior
      • Ultralight related notes
        • Identified 3+ encoding-related bugs when previously debugging Hive test failures related to discv5
        • Not sure if these fixes would resolve the concurrent-request problem

2. Discussion topics

2.1 Next step for Bridges

  • Curent status
    • Bridges are mainly run by the Trin team currently
  • Technical updates
    • Transition to generate e2hs file (much simplified without the accumulator) to replace era1 file for the entire range
    • Plan to maintain two bridge types: ephemeral bridge (handle reorgs & complex edge cases) and e2hs bridge
    • Dropping support for the older era1 bridge
  • Next step proposal
    • Community-runned bridges
      • Consensus: Shift from team-operated to community-operated bridges
      • Next steps: Document clear setup steps for external parties to get involved easily

2.2 Hive test

  • Achieved improved test coverage this week, with additional Portal Hive test now passing successfully
  • Strong cross-team collaboration as client teams worked together on troubleshooting and debugging

2.3 Team presence at Interop event

  • Some members from Portal team will attend the event in Berlin in June
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