Probabilistic relay for efficient propagation in a blockchain network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11341123-B2
Application number	US-201816627727-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 25, 2018
Priority date	Jun 30, 2017
Publication date	May 24, 2022
Grant date	May 24, 2022

Abstract

The invention relates to method for a node of a blockchain network, the computer-implemented method comprising receiving or generating, at a node, data for distribution in the blockchain network, said node having a plurality of interfaces, said data corresponding to an object such as a transaction or a block. The transaction can be a Bitcoin transaction for recordal in a blockchain. The method determines a correlation matrix having correlation coefficients representing the correlation between data processed at each interface of said node. From the correlation matrix a correlation index for each interface is determined. A threshold or indicator is calculated and data or objects such as Bitcoin transactions are relayed from nodes via interfaces according to a set of correlation coefficients of interface receiving the data. An indicator or threshold can derived from the correlation matrix and data is relayed if the correlation between the receiving interface and the other interface is lower than the indicator. The invention also resides in a corresponding computer readable storage medium, electronic device, node of a blockchain network, super-node of a blockchain network or blockchain network.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method for a node of a blockchain network, said node having a plurality of interfaces connected to peer nodes, the computer-implemented method comprising:
determining a correlation matrix having correlation coefficients representing a correlation between data processed at each interface of said node;
receiving data at a receiving interface of said node;
selecting at least one of a plurality of other interfaces of said node; and
relaying said received data from the selected at least one interface, wherein the at least one other interface is selected according to a set of the correlation coefficients of the receiving interface.

2. A method according to claim 1 , wherein an indicator is derived from the correlation matrix and data is relayed if the correlation between the receiving interface and the selected at least one interface is lower than the indicator.

3. A method according to claim 2 , wherein the indicator is used to determine a metric, said metric setting criteria for selecting which of the other interfaces are selected relaying data.

4. A method according to claim 1 , in which the data resides in network packets representing a serialised transaction and an identification representing a connection to an adjacent or peer node.

5. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the node establishes the correlation matrix by monitoring
(i) at least one data identifier of each packet of data processed through each interface, and
(ii) identical transactions processed through pairs of interfaces, and
determines a correlation coefficient between any two interfaces therefrom.

6. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the correlation matrix having m(m−1) elements is used to determine a correlation index c a of an interface a, as follows:

c
a

=

∑

i
=
0

a
-
1

⁢

c
ia

+

∑

i
=

a
+
1

m
-
1

⁢

c
ai

wherein m is the number of interfaces connected to peer nodes, and c ia is a first correlation coefficient corresponding to node i, interface a, and c ai , is a second correlation coefficient corresponding to interface a, node i.

7. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the correlation matrix having m(m−1) elements is used to determine a set of correlation coefficients for an interface a as follows:
{ C a }=[ c 0a ,c 1a , . . . c am-1 ]
wherein c am denotes a correlation coefficient for the interface a and an interface m, and {C a } denotes the set of correlation coefficients of peers coming from the interface a.

8. A method according to claim 2 , wherein the indicator is determined by:
determining a set of correlation coefficients, derived from the correlation matrix, for each interface connected to a peer node, said set having the correlation coefficients between each interface;
deriving an average or median value from said set.

9. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the number of interfaces selected for relay from an interface is dependent upon a metric derived from a set of correlation coefficients for an interface is determined from

m
*

(
a
)

=

∑

i
=
0

m
-
1

⁢

θ
i

(
a
)

wherein a is the interface, m is the number of interfaces connected to peer nodes, m*(a) is the number of nodes selected for relay interfaces of a node, and
θ is the metric that is compared to an indicator, such as the average value ( c a ) of the set correlation coefficients of an interface within the set {c a }, wherein

θ
i

(
a
)

=

{

1
,

c
ai

≤

c
a

_

0

c
ai

>

c
a

_

10. A method according to claim 2 , wherein relaying data is further based on at least one of
(i) a reset time, being the time since node initiation or start-up and,
(ii) a change time, being the time between change events including at least one of:
a new peer node connecting to an interface;
a terminated connection to an interface; and
an interface connecting to a node categorised or judged to be malicious.

11. A method according to claim 10 , wherein upon node initiation the node connects with peer nodes and relays data via all interfaces for a reset time period corresponding to the reset time, during which the correlation matrix is established, and after reset time period has passed the node relays all data if the correlation between the receiving interface and the other interface is lower

Assignees

• Nchain Licensing Ag

Inventors

• Madeo Simone
• Motylinski Patrick
• Destefanis Giuseppe
• Vincent Stephane

Classifications

• H04L67/104

  Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks · CPC title

• H04L67/107 Primary

  with limitation or expansion of the discovery scope · CPC title

• H04L9/3239

  involving non-keyed hash functions, e.g. modification detection codes [MDCs], MD5, SHA or RIPEMD · CPC title

• H04L9/3093

  involving Lattices or polynomial equations, e.g. NTRU scheme · CPC title

• H04L67/1055 Primary

  involving connection limits (involving dynamic management of active down- or uploading connections H04L67/1085) · CPC title