Overview
This proposal is for implemention of UDP trackers in I2P.
Motivation
As the user base in general and the number of bittorrent users specifically continues to grow, we need to make trackers and announces more efficient so that trackers are not overwhelemed.
Bittorrent proposed UDP trackers in BEP 15 [BEP15] in 2008, and the vast majority of trackers on clearnet are now UDP-only.
A preliminary proposal for UDP trackers in I2P was posted on our bittorrent spec page [SPEC] in May 2014; this predated our formal proposal process, and it was never implemented. This proposal simplifies the 2014 version.
It is difficult to calculate the bandwidth savings of datagrams vs. streaming protocol. A repliable request is about the same size as a streaming SYN, but the payload is about 500 bytes smaller because the HTTP GET has a huge 600 byte URL parameter string. The raw reply is much smaller than a streaming SYN ACK, providing significant reduction for a tracker's outbound traffic.
Additionally, there should be implementation-specific memory reductions, as datagrams require much less in-memory state than a streaming connection.
Design
This proposal uses both repliable and raw datagrams, as defined in [DATAGRAMS].
BEP 15
The message flow in [BEP15] is as follows:
Client Tracker
Connect Req. ------------->
<-------------- Connect Resp.
Announce Req. ------------->
<-------------- Announce Resp.
Announce Req. ------------->
<-------------- Announce Resp.
The connect phase is required to prevent IP address spoofing. The tracker returns a connection ID that the client uses in subsequent announces. This connection ID expires in one minute at the client, and in two minutes at the tracker. This is not necessary in I2P because of repliable datagrams.
We propose two mechanisms for I2P, compatibility mode and fast mode.
Compatibility Mode
In compatibility mode, we keep the same message flow as BEP 15, for ease of adoption in existing UDP-capable client code bases:
Client Tracker
Connect Req. -------------> (Repliable)
<-------------- Connect Resp. (Raw)
Announce Req. -------------> (Raw)
<-------------- Announce Resp. (Raw)
Announce Req. -------------> (Raw)
<-------------- Announce Resp. (Raw)
...
This mode is also useful if the client plans to send multiple announces within one minute to a single tracker, as only the connect message must be repliable.
I2P Fast Mode
In fast mode, we omit the connect phase, as it is not required to prevent address spoofing. This significantly simplifies the client-side implementation.
Client Tracker
Announce Req. -------------> (Repliable)
<-------------- Announce Resp. (Raw)
This mode omits a round-trip, but requires every announce request to be repliable.
Security Analysis
The primary goal of an announce protocol is to impose a cost on address spoofing. In compatibility mode, the client must actually exist and bundle a real leaseset. It must have inbound tunnels to receive the Connect Response. These tunnels could be zero-hop and built instantly, but that would expose the creator.
However, in fast mode, the destination and leaseset could be fake. Multiple fake destinations and leasesets can be rapidly generated without actually building tunnels. The Announce Request messages could then be sent out any tunnel.
Specification
Repliable datagrams use I2CP protocol 17; raw datagrams use I2CP protocol 18. Requests may be repliable or raw. Responses are always raw.
Connect Request
Client to tracker. 16 bytes. Must be repliable. Same as in [BEP15].
Offset Size Name Value
0 64-bit integer protocol_id 0x41727101980 // magic constant
8 32-bit integer action 0 // connect
12 32-bit integer transaction_id
Connect Response
Tracker to client. 16 bytes. Must be raw. Same as in [BEP15].
Offset Size Name Value
0 32-bit integer action 0 // connect
4 32-bit integer transaction_id
8 64-bit integer connection_id
The response MUST be sent to the I2CP "to port" that was received as the request "from port".
Announce Request
Client to tracker. 98 bytes. Same as in [BEP15] except as noted below.
If preceded by a connect request/response, must be raw, with the connection_id received in the connect response.
If NOT preceded by a connect request/response, must be repliable, and the connection_id is ignored.
Offset Size Name Value
0 64-bit integer connection_id
8 32-bit integer action 1 // announce
12 32-bit integer transaction_id
16 20-byte string info_hash
36 20-byte string peer_id
56 64-bit integer downloaded
64 64-bit integer left
72 64-bit integer uploaded
80 32-bit integer event 0 // 0: none; 1: completed; 2: started; 3: stopped
84 32-bit integer IP address 0 // default
88 32-bit integer key
92 32-bit integer num_want -1 // default
96 16-bit integer port
98 TBD additional data TBD
Changes from [BEP15]:
- connection_id is ignored if repliable
- IP address is ignored
- key is ignored
- port is probably ignored
- Explicitly indidate that the protocol is extensible, with possible additional data starting at port 98.
The response MUST be sent to the I2CP "to port" that was received as the request "from port". Do not use the port from the announce request.
Announce Response
Tracker to client. 20+ bytes. Must be raw. Same as in [BEP15] except as noted below.
Offset Size Name Value
0 32-bit integer action 1 // announce
4 32-bit integer transaction_id
8 32-bit integer interval
12 32-bit integer leechers
16 32-bit integer seeders
20 16-bit integer count of hashes to follow
22 32 * n 32-byte hash binary hashes
...
22 + 32 * n TBD additional data TBD
Changes from [BEP15]:
- Add a hash count before the hashes, so that the response format is extensible with additional data after the hashes.
- Instead of 6-byte IPv4+port or 18-byte IPv6+port, we return a multiple of 32-byte "compact responses" with the SHA-256 binary peer hashes. As with TCP compact responses, we do not include a port.
- Explicitly indidate that the protocol is extensible, with possible additional data starting after the hashes
The response MUST be sent to the I2CP "to port" that was received as the request "from port". Do not use the port from the announce request.
I2P datagrams have a very large maximum size of about 16 KB; however, for reliable delivery, datagrams larger than 4 KB should be avoided. For bandwidth efficiency, trackers should probably limit the maximum peers to about 50.
Scrape
Scrape request/response from [BEP15] is not required by this proposal, but may be implemented if desired, no changes required. The scrape request is always repliable (unless there is a previous connect request/response) and the scrape response is always raw.
Error Response
Error response from [BEP15] is not required by this proposal, but may be implemented if desired, no changes required. The error response is always raw.
Announce URL
As in clearnet, UDP announce URLs are of the form "udp://host:port/path". The path is ignored and may be empty. If the ":port" part is omitted, use an I2CP port of 0.
Issues
- Repliable datagrams do not support offline signatures. That requires a separate proposal.
- This proposal does not support blinded destinations, but may be extended to do so. See below.
- This proposal offers two modes at the client's option. An existing clearnet tracker such as "opentracker" would require more modifications to support the fast mode. There is no way in the announce URL to indicate support for only one mode.
- Compatibility mode may not be necessary, pending feedback from BiglyBT and other developers. However, it would still save a lot of bandwidth if it is used for several announces within a minute. Repliable announces are about 450 bytes larger than raw announces.
Extensions
Extension bits or a version field are not included. Clients and trackers should not assume packets to be of a certain size. This way, additional fields can be added without breaking compatibility.
The announce response is modified to include a count of peer hashes, so that the response may be easily extended with additional information.
If blinded destination support is required, we can either add the blinded 35-byte address to the end of the announce request, or define a new blinded announce request message. The set of blinded 35-byte peer addresses could be added to the end of the announce reply.
Implementation guidelines
Clients
For a given tracker hostname, a client should prefer UDP over HTTP URLs, and should not announce to both.
Clients wihout existing BEP 15 support should implement fast mode only, as it is much simpler. Clients with existing BEP 15 support should require only small modifications. Evaluate both fast and compatibility modes and choose whatever is best for the existing code base.
If a client support DHT or other datagram protocols, it should probably select a different port as the request "from port" so that the replies come back to that port and are not mixed up with DHT messages. The client only receives raw datagrams as replies. Trackers will never send a repliable datagram to the client.
Clients with a default list of opentrackers should update the list to add UDP URLs after the known opentrackers are known to support UDP.
Clients may or may not implement retransmission of requests. Retransmissions, if implemented, should use an initial timeout of at least 15 seconds, and double the timeout for each retransmission (exponential backoff).
Trackers
Trackers must implement both compatibility mode and fast mode. Trackers with existing BEP 15 support should require only small modifications. This proposal differs from the 2014 proposal, in that the tracker must support reception of repliable and raw datagrams on the same port.
For an integrated application (router and client in one process, for example the ZzzOT Java plugin), it should be straightforward to implement and route the streaming and datagram traffic separately.
For an external tracker application that currently uses an HTTP server tunnel to receive announce requests, the implementation could be quite difficult. A specialized tunnel could be developed to translate datagrams to local HTTP requests/responses. Or, a specialized tunnel that handles both HTTP requests and datagrams could be designed that would forward the datagrams to the external process. These design decisions will depend heavily on the specific router and tracker implementations, and are outside the scope of this proposal.
Migration
Existing clients do not support UDP announce URLs and ignore them.
Existing trackers do not support reception of repliable or raw datagrams, they will be dropped.
This proposal is completely optional. Neither clients nor trackers are required to implement it at any time.
Rollout
The first implementations are expected to be in ZzzOT and i2psnark. They will be used for testing and verification of this proposal.
Other implementations will follow as desired after the testing and verification are complete.
References
[BEP15] | (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10) http://www.bittorrent.org/beps/bep_0015.html |
[DATAGRAMS] | http://www.i2p2.de/spec/datagrams |
[SPEC] | http://www.i2p2.de/en/docs/applications/bittorrent |