# ADR 039: Peer Behaviour Interface
## Changelog
* 07-03-2019: Initial draft
* 14-03-2019: Updates from feedback
## 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 ErrorBehaviourPeer to provide
concrete reasons for stopping peers. Introduce GoodBehaviourPeer to provide
concrete ways in which a peer contributes.
### Implementation Changes
PeerBehaviour then becomes an interface for signaling peer errors as well
as for marking peers as `good`.
```go
type PeerBehaviour interface {
Behaved(peer Peer, reason GoodBehaviourPeer)
Errored(peer Peer, reason ErrorBehaviourPeer)
}
```
Instead of signaling peers to stop with arbitrary reasons:
`reason interface{}`
We introduce a concrete error type ErrorBehaviourPeer:
```go
type ErrorBehaviourPeer int
const (
ErrorBehaviourUnknown = iota
ErrorBehaviourBadMessage
ErrorBehaviourMessageOutofOrder
...
)
```
To provide additional information on the ways a peer contributed, we introduce
the GoodBehaviourPeer type.
```go
type GoodBehaviourPeer int
const (
GoodBehaviourVote = iota
GoodBehaviourBlockPart
...
)
```
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 ErrorBehaviourPeer) {
spb.sw.StopPeerForError(peer, reason)
}
func (spb *SwitchedPeerBehaviour) Behaved(peer Peer, reason GoodBehaviourPeer) {
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 ErrorBehaviours map[Peer][]ErrorBehaviourPeer
type GoodBehaviours map[Peer][]GoodBehaviourPeer
type StorePeerBehaviour struct {
eb ErrorBehaviours
gb GoodBehaviours
}
func NewStorePeerBehaviour() *StorePeerBehaviour{
return &StorePeerBehaviour{
eb: make(ErrorBehaviours),
gb: make(GoodBehaviours),
}
}
func (spb StorePeerBehaviour) Errored(peer Peer, reason ErrorBehaviourPeer) {
if _, ok := spb.eb[peer]; !ok {
spb.eb[peer] = []ErrorBehaviours{reason}
} else {
spb.eb[peer] = append(spb.eb[peer], reason)
}
}
func (mpb *StorePeerBehaviour) GetErrored() ErrorBehaviours {
return mpb.eb
}
func (spb StorePeerBehaviour) Behaved(peer Peer, reason GoodBehaviourPeer) {
if _, ok := spb.gb[peer]; !ok {
spb.gb[peer] = []GoodBehaviourPeer{reason}
} else {
spb.gb[peer] = append(spb.gb[peer], reason)
}
}
func (spb *StorePeerBehaviour) GetBehaved() GoodBehaviours {
return spb.gb
}
```
## Status
Accepted
## 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