ladon

README

Ladon - High-Performance Multi-BFT Consensus via Dynamic Global Ordering

ABSTRACT

Multi-BFT consensus runs multiple leader-based consensus instances in parallel, circumventing the leader bottleneck of a single instance. However, it contains an Achilles’ heel: the need to globally order output blocks across instances. Deriving this global ordering is challenging because it must cope with different rates at which blocks are produced by instances. Prior Multi-BFT designs assign each block a global index before creation, leading to poor performance. We propose Ladon, a high-performance Multi-BFT protocol that allows varying instance block rates. Our key idea is to order blocks across instances dynamically, which eliminates blocking on slow instances. We achieve dynamic global ordering by assigning monotonic ranks to blocks. We pipeline rank coordination with the consensus process to reduce protocol overhead and combine aggregate signatures with rank information to reduce message complexity. Besides, the dynamic ordering enables blocks to be globally ordered according to their generation, which respects inter-block causality.

Ladon is a distributed consensus framework built on top of the ISS framework from Hyperledger-labs. For a detailed modular explanation and a glossary of terms, please refer to here. Ladon extends the capabilities of ISS by incorporating the following modifications:

Pipeline the Rank Collection in the Consensus Protocol: Ladon introduces a pipelined step in the consensus protocol for collecting the ranks of participating nodes, which is then utilized for the global ordering of blocks.

Dynamic Global Ordering Algorithm: Ladon replaces the existing global ordering algorithm in ISS with a dynamic ordering algorithm. This new algorithm enhances system performance and efficiency, particularly in the presence of stragglers.

Supported Consensus Protocols:

• PBFT (Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance)
• HotStuff

Installation

Cloning the repository

Create a GOPATH directory and make sure you are the owner of it:

sudo mkdir -p /opt/gopath/

sudo chown -R $user:$group /opt/gopath/

where $user and $group your user and group respectively.

Create a directory to clone the repository into:

mkdir -p /opt/gopath/src/github.com/hyperledger-labs/

Clone this repository unter the directory you created:

cd /opt/gopath/src/github.com/hyperledger-labs/

git clone https://github.com/hyperledger-labs/ladon.git

Checkout theresearch-ladon branch.

Installing Dependencies

With /opt/gopath/src/github.com/hyperledger-labs/ladon as working directory, go to the deployment directory:

cd deployment

Configure the user and group in vars.sh

To install Golang and requirements:

source scripts/install-local.sh

NOTE: The install-local.sh script, among other dependencies, installs Go in the home directory, sets GOPATH to /opt/gopath/bin/ and edits ~/.bashrc.

The default path to the repository is set to: /opt/gopath/src/github.com/hyperledger-labs/ladon/.

Ladon Installation

The run-protoc.sh script needs to be run from the project root directory (i.e. ladon) before compiling the Go files.

IMPORTANT: go modules are not supported. Disable with the command: export GO111MODULE=off before installation.

Compile and install the go code by running go install ./... from the project root directory.

Deployment & Permformance Metrics

Detailed instructions can be found here.