Exploring Peer-to-Peer Networks in libp2p: Best Practices for Scaling!

1

Hello,

I am currently exploring libp2p for building decentralized applications and I have come across some questions regarding the scalability and performance of peer-to-peer (P2P) networks. While I understand the core features, such as peer discovery, transport protocols and NAT traversal…, I am interested in learning about best practices for scaling P2P networks efficiently.

What strategies can be employed to maintain low latency and high throughput as the network grows in size: ??
How can libp2p handle large-scale deployments while ensuring that peers can reliably find and connect with each other in real-time: ??
Are there any common pitfalls when scaling P2P networks in libp2p that I should be aware of: ??

I am looking for insights from developers who have experience with libp2p in large-scale environments. Any suggestions, resources, or examples would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance !!

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

With Regards,
MarceloGolang

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Just off the top of my head there are two big things to keep in mind. The first one would be network view. In a very large network you want to make sure that nodes only talk to a smaller portion of the network. Ideally you should limit connections so that one node is not overwhelmed.

The second one would be network bottle necking. If NAT traversal isn’t working well and nodes end up using relays your performance will go down.

I am not a expert in p2p or libp2p so take my thoughts with a grain of salt.

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Agree with @Darin755 especially on connection limiting. There are configurations for this (e.g. libp2p_connection_limits in Rust). One note is that if you do not have this, a node’s process may reach its file-descriptor limit (in Unix) which is usually met once you are talking about thousands of peers.