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Session 50: Design document cleanup and decision documentation

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Wire Protocol (fips-wire-protocol.md):
- Renamed to "FIPS Wire Protocol and Transport Layer Management"
- Updated intro describing transport layer purpose
- Documented reconnection handling approach (Option C)
- Clarified UDP as expected majority for initial deployments

Session Protocol (fips-session-protocol.md):
- Renamed to "FIPS Session Protocol Flow"
- Documented decisions throughout (removed alternatives analysis)
- Corrected Noise patterns: Link=IK, Session=KK
- Consolidated section 4 with fips-routing.md reference
- Rewrote section 5 terminology with decisions
- Merged duplicate crypto primitives sections
- Added route determination and packet forwarding details
This commit is contained in:
Johnathan Corgan
2026-02-01 17:22:44 +00:00
parent 4890940bb7
commit 5830f54039
2 changed files with 105 additions and 321 deletions
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docs/design/fips-wire-protocol.md
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@@ -1,13 +1,20 @@
# FIPS Packet Dispatch and Session Management
# FIPS Wire Protocol and Transport Layer Management
This document specifies the packet dispatch mechanism for FIPS, including:
This document describes the FIPS wire protocol message flow at the transport level:
how peers establish and maintain cryptographic sessions with each other.
- Wire format with session indices for O(1) dispatch
- Index-based session lookup enabling transport-layer roaming
The transport layer provides the link-level communications path for a node to each
of its outbound and inbound peers, delivering an authenticated, encrypted, and
roaming-friendly peer-to-peer mesh connection over which both link-layer routing
control messages and end-to-end FIPS session layer data flow.
Topics include:
- Wire format with session indices for O(1) packet dispatch
- Handshake and session lifecycle
- Transport-layer roaming via index-based session lookup
- Security properties: rate limiting, replay protection, state machine strictness
- Transport-specific considerations
This document supersedes the wire format section in fips-design.md §6.
- Adaptation to different transport types (UDP, TCP, Tor, Ethernet, radio)
---
@@ -567,23 +574,15 @@ Each received packet is validated against expected state:
### 7.3 Reconnection Handling
When msg1 arrives for an already-authenticated peer (identified by npub in the
decrypted static key):
decrypted static key), the new handshake is accepted alongside the existing
session. If the new handshake completes successfully within a timeout, it
replaces the old session; otherwise it is discarded.
**Option A: Reject** - Existing session is authoritative, ignore new handshake.
Simple but prevents legitimate reconnection after network change.
**Option B: Replace** - New handshake supersedes existing session. Accepts
reconnection but allows DoS via handshake flooding.
**Option C: Validate first** - Accept new handshake alongside existing session.
If it completes successfully, replace old session. Provides graceful migration.
**Recommendation**: Option C with the caveat that the new handshake must
complete within a timeout. This handles:
This approach handles:
- Legitimate reconnection (network changed, process restarted)
- NAT rebinding (source port changed)
- Cross-connection resolution (both sides initiated)
- Cross-connection resolution (both sides initiated simultaneously)
---
@@ -653,7 +652,8 @@ is far beyond expected peer counts. If index exhaustion becomes a concern:
### 9.1 UDP
UDP is the primary transport for FIPS and the design target for this document.
UDP transport is expected to be the majority of deployments in the initial
stages of development.
**Address semantics**: `TransportAddr` is `SocketAddr` (IP:port string).