A Toolbox for libp2p Network Monitoring
Dennis Trautwein · Mikel Cortes
Dennis and Mikel from ProbeLab present their work on rigorous P2P protocol measurement and benchmarking, aimed at making peer-to-peer networks faster, safer, and more resilient. They walk through their suite of measurement tools targeting the libp2p ecosystem; including Nebula and Ants for network topology, Boomo for peer monitoring, Tiros for IPFS website uptime, Hermes for protocol performance, Ucla for bandwidth, Parsec for DHT lookup monitoring, and Akai for data availability. Mikel does a deep dive into Hermes, a lightweight networking tool that captures Gossipsub events to analyze message propagation, duplicates, and bandwidth usage, sharing findings from their analysis of Gossipsub 1.2's IDONTWANT control messages, which reduce duplicates but still leave room for optimization. They also preview Hermes++, a lighter, horizontally scalable version being developed in collaboration with the Ethereum Foundation. Dennis closes with the roadmap: expanding to new networks, revamping probelab.io as the reference point for P2P metrics, building a peer monitoring service, and publishing a State of Web3 report later in the year, followed by audience Q&A on deployment, geographic distribution, and Gossipsub improvements.
