tendermint/docs/tendermint-core/block-sync/reactor.md

---
order: 2
---
# Reactor

The Blocksync Reactor's high level responsibility is to enable peers who are
far behind the current state of the consensus to quickly catch up by downloading
many blocks in parallel, verifying their commits, and executing them against the
ABCI application.

Tendermint full nodes run the Blocksync Reactor as a service to provide blocks
to new nodes. New nodes run the Blocksync Reactor in "fast_sync" mode,
where they actively make requests for more blocks until they sync up.
Once caught up, "fast_sync" mode is disabled and the node switches to
using (and turns on) the Consensus Reactor.

## Architecture and algorithm

The Blocksync reactor is organised as a set of concurrent tasks:

- Receive routine of Blocksync Reactor
- Task for creating Requesters
- Set of Requesters tasks and - Controller task.

![Blocksync Reactor Architecture Diagram](img/bc-reactor.png)

### Data structures

These are the core data structures necessarily to provide the Blocksync Reactor logic.

Requester data structure is used to track assignment of request for `block` at position `height` to a peer with id equals to `peerID`.

```go
type Requester {
  mtx          Mutex
  block        Block
  height       int64
  peerID       p2p.ID
  redoChannel  chan p2p.ID //redo may send multi-time; peerId is used to identify repeat
}
```

Pool is a core data structure that stores last executed block (`height`), assignment of requests to peers (`requesters`), current height for each peer and number of pending requests for each peer (`peers`), maximum peer height, etc.

```go
type Pool {
  mtx                Mutex
  requesters         map[int64]*Requester
  height             int64
  peers              map[p2p.ID]*Peer
  maxPeerHeight      int64
  numPending         int32
  store              BlockStore
  requestsChannel    chan<- BlockRequest
  errorsChannel      chan<- peerError
}
```

Peer data structure stores for each peer current `height` and number of pending requests sent to the peer (`numPending`), etc.

```go
type Peer struct {
  id           p2p.ID
  height       int64
  numPending   int32
  timeout      *time.Timer
  didTimeout   bool
}
```

BlockRequest is internal data structure used to denote current mapping of request for a block at some `height` to a peer (`PeerID`).

```go
type BlockRequest {
  Height int64
  PeerID p2p.ID
}
```

### Receive routine of Blocksync Reactor

It is executed upon message reception on the BlocksyncChannel inside p2p receive routine. There is a separate p2p receive routine (and therefore receive routine of the Blocksync Reactor) executed for each peer. Note that try to send will not block (returns immediately) if outgoing buffer is full.

```go
handleMsg(pool, m):
    upon receiving bcBlockRequestMessage m from peer p:
      block = load block for height m.Height from pool.store
      if block != nil then
        try to send BlockResponseMessage(block) to p
      else
        try to send bcNoBlockResponseMessage(m.Height) to p

    upon receiving bcBlockResponseMessage m from peer p:
      pool.mtx.Lock()
      requester = pool.requesters[m.Height]
      if requester == nil then
        error("peer sent us a block we didn't expect")
        continue

      if requester.block == nil and requester.peerID == p then
        requester.block = m
        pool.numPending -= 1  // atomic decrement
        peer = pool.peers[p]
        if peer != nil then
          peer.numPending--
          if peer.numPending == 0 then
            peer.timeout.Stop()
            // NOTE: we don't send Quit signal to the corresponding requester task!
        else
          trigger peer timeout to expire after peerTimeout
      pool.mtx.Unlock()


    upon receiving bcStatusRequestMessage m from peer p:
      try to send bcStatusResponseMessage(pool.store.Height)

    upon receiving bcStatusResponseMessage m from peer p:
      pool.mtx.Lock()
      peer = pool.peers[p]
      if peer != nil then
        peer.height = m.height
      else
        peer = create new Peer data structure with id = p and height = m.Height
        pool.peers[p] = peer

      if m.Height > pool.maxPeerHeight then
        pool.maxPeerHeight = m.Height
      pool.mtx.Unlock()

onTimeout(p):
  send error message to pool error channel
  peer = pool.peers[p]
  peer.didTimeout = true
```

### Requester tasks

Requester task is responsible for fetching a single block at position `height`.

```go
fetchBlock(height, pool):
  while true do {
    peerID = nil
    block = nil
    peer = pickAvailablePeer(height)
    peerID = peer.id

    enqueue BlockRequest(height, peerID) to pool.requestsChannel
    redo = false
    while !redo do
      select {
        upon receiving Quit message do
          return
        upon receiving redo message with id on redoChannel do
          if peerID == id {
            mtx.Lock()
            pool.numPending++
            redo = true
            mtx.UnLock()
          }
      }
    }

pickAvailablePeer(height):
  selectedPeer = nil
  while selectedPeer = nil do
    pool.mtx.Lock()
    for each peer in pool.peers do
      if !peer.didTimeout and peer.numPending < maxPendingRequestsPerPeer and peer.height >= height then
        peer.numPending++
        selectedPeer = peer
        break
    pool.mtx.Unlock()

    if selectedPeer = nil then
      sleep requestIntervalMS

  return selectedPeer
```

sleep for requestIntervalMS

### Task for creating Requesters

This task is responsible for continuously creating and starting Requester tasks.

```go
createRequesters(pool):
  while true do
    if !pool.isRunning then break
    if pool.numPending < maxPendingRequests or size(pool.requesters) < maxTotalRequesters then
      pool.mtx.Lock()
      nextHeight = pool.height + size(pool.requesters)
      requester = create new requester for height nextHeight
      pool.requesters[nextHeight] = requester
      pool.numPending += 1 // atomic increment
      start requester task
      pool.mtx.Unlock()
    else
      sleep requestIntervalMS
      pool.mtx.Lock()
      for each peer in pool.peers do
        if !peer.didTimeout && peer.numPending > 0 && peer.curRate < minRecvRate then
          send error on pool error channel
          peer.didTimeout = true
        if peer.didTimeout then
          for each requester in pool.requesters do
            if requester.getPeerID() == peer then
              enqueue msg on requestor's redoChannel
          delete(pool.peers, peerID)
      pool.mtx.Unlock()
```

### Main blocksync reactor controller task

```go
main(pool):
  create trySyncTicker with interval trySyncIntervalMS
  create statusUpdateTicker with interval statusUpdateIntervalSeconds
  create switchToConsensusTicker with interval switchToConsensusIntervalSeconds

  while true do
    select {
   upon receiving BlockRequest(Height, Peer) on pool.requestsChannel:
     try to send bcBlockRequestMessage(Height) to Peer

   upon receiving error(peer) on errorsChannel:
     stop peer for error

   upon receiving message on statusUpdateTickerChannel:
     broadcast bcStatusRequestMessage(bcR.store.Height) // message sent in a separate routine

   upon receiving message on switchToConsensusTickerChannel:
     pool.mtx.Lock()
     receivedBlockOrTimedOut = pool.height > 0 || (time.Now() - pool.startTime) > 5 Seconds
     ourChainIsLongestAmongPeers = pool.maxPeerHeight == 0 || pool.height >= pool.maxPeerHeight
     haveSomePeers = size of pool.peers > 0
     pool.mtx.Unlock()
     if haveSomePeers && receivedBlockOrTimedOut && ourChainIsLongestAmongPeers then
       switch to consensus mode

          upon receiving message on trySyncTickerChannel:
            for i = 0; i < 10; i++ do
              pool.mtx.Lock()
              firstBlock = pool.requesters[pool.height].block
              secondBlock = pool.requesters[pool.height].block
              if firstBlock == nil or secondBlock == nil then continue
              pool.mtx.Unlock()
              verify firstBlock using LastCommit from secondBlock
              if verification failed
                pool.mtx.Lock()
                peerID = pool.requesters[pool.height].peerID
                redoRequestsForPeer(peerId)
                delete(pool.peers, peerID)
                stop peer peerID for error
                pool.mtx.Unlock()
              else
                delete(pool.requesters, pool.height)
                save firstBlock to store
                pool.height++
                execute firstBlock
    }

redoRequestsForPeer(pool, peerId):
  for each requester in pool.requesters do
    if requester.getPeerID() == peerID
     enqueue msg on redoChannel for requester
```

## Channels

Defines `maxMsgSize` for the maximum size of incoming messages,
`SendQueueCapacity` and `RecvBufferCapacity` for maximum sending and
receiving buffers respectively. These are supposed to prevent amplification
attacks by setting up the upper limit on how much data we can receive & send to
a peer.

Sending incorrectly encoded data will result in stopping the peer.