# ADR 037: Peer Behaviour Interface ## Changelog * 07-03-2019: Initial draft ## Context The responsibility for signaling and acting upon peer behaviour lacks a single owning component and is heavily coupled with the network stack[1](#references). Reactors maintain a reference to the `p2p.Switch` which they use to call `switch.StopPeerForError(...)` when a peer misbehaves and `switch.MarkAsGood(...)` when a peer contributes in some meaningful way. While the switch handles `StopPeerForError` internally, the `MarkAsGood` method delegates to another component, `p2p.AddrBook`. This scheme of delegation across Switch obscures the responsibility for handling peer behaviour and ties up the reactors in a larger dependency graph when testing. ## Decision Introduce a `PeerBehaviour` interface and concrete implementations which provide methods for reactors to signal peer behaviour without direct coupling `p2p.Switch`. Introduce a ErrPeer to provide concrete reasons for stopping peers. ### Implementation Changes PeerBehaviour then becomes an interface for signaling peer errors as well as for marking peers as `good`. XXX: It might be better to pass p2p.ID instead of the whole peer but as a first draft maintain the underlying implementation as much as possible. ```go type PeerBehaviour interface { Errored(peer Peer, reason ErrPeer) MarkPeerAsGood(peer Peer) } ``` Instead of signaling peers to stop with arbitrary reasons: `reason interface{}` We introduce a concrete error type ErrPeer: ```go type ErrPeer int const ( ErrPeerUnknown = iota ErrPeerBadMessage ErrPeerMessageOutofOrder ... ) ``` As a first iteration we provide a concrete implementation which wraps the switch: ```go type SwitchedPeerBehaviour struct { sw *Switch } func (spb *SwitchedPeerBehaviour) Errored(peer Peer, reason ErrPeer) { spb.sw.StopPeerForError(peer, reason) } func (spb *SwitchedPeerBehaviour) MarkPeerAsGood(peer Peer) { spb.sw.MarkPeerAsGood(peer) } func NewSwitchedPeerBehaviour(sw *Switch) *SwitchedPeerBehaviour { return &SwitchedPeerBehaviour{ sw: sw, } } ``` Reactors, which are often difficult to unit test[2](#references). could use an implementation which exposes the signals produced by the reactor in manufactured scenarios: ```go type PeerErrors map[Peer][]ErrPeer type GoodPeers map[Peer]bool type StorePeerBehaviour struct { pe PeerErrors gp GoodPeers } func NewStorePeerBehaviour() *StorePeerBehaviour{ return &StorePeerBehaviour{ pe: make(PeerErrors), gp: GoodPeers{}, } } func (spb StorePeerBehaviour) Errored(peer Peer, reason ErrPeer) { if _, ok := spb.pe[peer]; !ok { spb.pe[peer] = []ErrPeer{reason} } else { spb.pe[peer] = append(spb.pe[peer], reason) } } func (mpb *StorePeerBehaviour) GetPeerErrors() PeerErrors { return mpb.pe } func (spb *StorePeerBehaviour) MarkPeerAsGood(peer Peer) { if _, ok := spb.gp[peer]; !ok { spb.gp[peer] = true } } func (spb *StorePeerBehaviour) GetGoodPeers() GoodPeers { return spb.gp } ``` ## Status Proposed ## Consequences ### Positive * De-couple signaling from acting upon peer behaviour. * Reduce the coupling of reactors and the Switch and the network stack * The responsibility of managing peer behaviour can be migrated to a single component instead of split between the switch and the address book. ### Negative * The first iteration will simply wrap the Switch and introduce a level of indirection. ### Neutral ## References 1. Issue [#2067](https://github.com/tendermint/tendermint/issues/2067): P2P Refactor 2. PR: [#3506](https://github.com/tendermint/tendermint/pull/3506): ADR 036: Blockchain Reactor Refactor