Network Component
The network component handles all peer-to-peer communication in Reth, including peer discovery, connection management, and protocol message handling.
Overview
The network stack implements the Ethereum Wire Protocol (ETH) and provides:
- Peer discovery via discv4 and discv5
- Connection management with configurable peer limits
- Transaction propagation
- State synchronization
- Request/response protocols (e.g. GetBHeaders, GetBodies)
Architecture
Key Concepts
Peer Discovery
The network uses multiple discovery mechanisms to find and connect to peers:
- discv4: UDP-based discovery protocol for finding peers
- discv5: Improved discovery protocol with better security
- DNS Discovery: Peer lists published via DNS for bootstrap
Connection Management
- Maintains separate limits for inbound and outbound connections
- Implements peer scoring and reputation tracking
- Handles connection lifecycle and graceful disconnections
Protocol Support
- ETH Protocol: Core Ethereum wire protocol for blocks and transactions
Message Broadcasting
The network efficiently propagates new blocks and transactions to peers using:
- Transaction pooling and deduplication
- Block announcement strategies
- Bandwidth management
Next Steps
- Learn about the Transaction Pool
- Understand Consensus integration
- Explore RPC server setup