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Hyperledger Umbra - Simulating Hyperledger Blockchains Using Mininet

The document discusses using Mininet to simulate Hyperledger blockchains. It describes how Mininet can emulate blockchain nodes and networks on a single laptop for fast prototyping and testing. The document outlines the process of building a Hyperledger Umbra simulation lab project using Mininet to test and experiment with Hyperledger blockchain frameworks.

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15 views

Hyperledger Umbra - Simulating Hyperledger Blockchains Using Mininet

The document discusses using Mininet to simulate Hyperledger blockchains. It describes how Mininet can emulate blockchain nodes and networks on a single laptop for fast prototyping and testing. The document outlines the process of building a Hyperledger Umbra simulation lab project using Mininet to test and experiment with Hyperledger blockchain frameworks.

Uploaded by

sec21it183
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Hyperledger Umbra: Simulating

Hyperledger Blockchains using Mininet


Raphael Vicente Rosa
Mentor: David Huseby
Hyperledger Umbra
● Storyline
○ Umbra 2018 - Shadow Simulation Platform
● Proposal [1]
○ Use Mininet for Emulation

[1] https://wiki.hyperledger.org/display/INTERN/Hyperledger+Umbra%3A+Simulating+Hyperledger+Blockchains+using+Mininet
Why Blockchain Networks with Mininet?
● Issues with Shadow
○ Not (enough) kernel libraries available
○ i.e., patching environment for each project -> hard for fast prototyping
● Mininet
○ Created for simple prototypes of Software Defined Networks concepts
○ Can emulate hosts and programmable switches in a laptop
■ Easy/Fast prototype/test cycles
○ Scale to hundreds of nodes -> Included multiples servers (i.e., thousands of nodes)
○ Extract granular networking features
○ Well documented
○ Active mailing list
Why Blockchain Networks with Mininet?
Your project fully reproducible/comparable!

i.e., chaincodes, transactions, consensus, footprints, traffic analysis, etc...

Debugging blockchain projects in a laptop!

A focus on research oriented test cases (e.g., investigating consensus algorithms)


Software Defined Networking (SDN)
● Started in 2008 - Stanford
● Nowadays, widely adopted (standards, open source projects, etc)
● In essence, splits network control and data planes
● i.e., programmable networks!
● Open interfaces for network controllers
Mininet: Quick Intro
● http://mininet.org/
● Create nodes and switches -> extensible and flexible network
● Create dynamic links
● Set nodes/links resources (e.g., bandwidth, latency, cpu, memory, etc)
● Plug and play networks
● Easy to start coding networks (http://mininet.org/walkthrough/)
● Extended:
○ Maxinet
○ Containernet
○ Mininet-wifi/[IoT]
Using Containernet to Emulate Blockchain Projects
● Ideas:
○ Plug and play blockchain projects
○ Unit test cases in a laptop
○ Inherits all the abstractions from SDNs
○ Grabs containers as host entities
■ i.e., any available version of HL projects in Docker images will be just fine
Hyperledger Umbra - Internship 2019
● Written in python 3 and Yaml config files
● Test deployed in one (or more) servers
● Test descriptor and report -> reproducible and comparable
● Event oriented:
○ Nodes/Links lifecycle
● Architecture
○ Microservices with REST interfaces
● Views:
○ Use Case: Tester/Analyst
○ Logical: Modules/Classes
Process View: Big Picture of Test Workflow
Activities
1. Build reference architecture (Logical View and Process View)
2. Evaluate a Hyperledger project (e.g., Fabric) with reference architecture
3. Build Stimulus
4. Build Monitoring
5. Build Dynamics
6. Build Analysis
7. Scale to cluster of servers
8. Extend architecture to other Hyperledger project(s)
9. Document the project
Expected Outcomes
● Proof of concept configurations, scripts, and documentation for setting up a
Mininet network that runs one of the Hyperledger blockchain frameworks
under simulation.
○ A proposal for a blockchain experiment that can be executed on the Mininet simulation setup.
● Stretch goals:
○ Coordinate with the maintainers for a Hyperledger framework project to execute a useful
experiment (e.g. running at different scales 10, 100, 1000 nodes) and providing an analysis
report and/or blog post describing the findings.
○ Investigate packet data on how blockchain projects realize consensus
Future Plans
The Hyperledger Umbra Lab already exists.

Once we achieve the ability to run Hyperledger blockchains under simulation,


future work will be around designing and conducting empirical computer science
research experiments to help direct improvements in design and architecture of
future versions of the Hyperledger blockchain platforms.
Joining Umbra
● Github - https://github.com/hyperledger-labs/umbra
● Mailing list - #umbra in [email protected]
Demo
Reproducing Hyperledger Fabric
● Run 2 orgs with 2 peers each, and another org with orderer
● All files (topology, events, crypto-keys, genesis, etc) generated from a single
build_configs.py script
○ Based on module umbra-configs
● Abstracts each peer as a docker container
● Joins peer in orgs by a single network (i.e., single virtual switch)
Demo
● Containers deployed according to topology built
● Events called upon schedules
● In summary,
○ Deploys peers/orderer of orgs
○ Creates channel
○ Peers to join channel
○ Info about channel, network, etc
○ Install, Instantiate, Invoke chaincodes in orgs
○ Query chaincode in orgs
○ Clean the environment
Beyond the Basics
● Requires all the setup of cryptogen and configtxgen config files
○ Built upon topology definition
● fabric-python-sdk was crucial to perform all the events
● Docker and Open vSwtiches can enable sFlow metrics to be collected in a
single database
○ Measures host and networking metrics during execution
● Still, optimization can be applied for config files (transparent for users)

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