TCP (and future Tor) transports previously established connections
synchronously inside send(), blocking the node's RX event loop during
TCP handshake. This is particularly problematic for Tor where SOCKS5
circuit establishment can take 30-120 seconds.
Add a non-blocking connect path:
- ConnectionState enum in transport layer (None/Connecting/Connected/Failed)
- connect_async() on TcpTransport spawns background TCP connect task
- connection_state_sync() polls task completion, promotes to pool
- TransportHandle gains connect() and connection_state() dispatch methods
- Node tracks PendingConnect entries for connection-oriented transports
- initiate_connection() defers handshake for connection-oriented transports
- start_handshake() extracted as separate method for deferred invocation
- poll_pending_connects() in tick handler polls and completes handshakes
- Failed connects trigger retry via schedule_retry()
Connectionless transports (UDP, Ethernet) are unchanged — connect()
is a no-op and connection_state() always returns Connected.
The existing connect-on-send path in send_async() is preserved as
fallback for reconnection after connection drops.
811 tests pass (6 new), clippy clean.
Implement hop-by-hop ECN congestion signaling through the FMP layer,
transport-level congestion detection via kernel drop counters, and
chaos harness integration for end-to-end validation.
FMP/session ECN plumbing:
- Thread ce_flag parsed at link layer through dispatch_link_message,
handle_session_datagram, handle_session_payload, and
handle_encrypted_session_msg to session delivery
- Replace hardcoded false in session-layer record_recv() with actual
ce_flag, activating ecn_ce_count tracking in session MMP
ECN congestion detection and CE relay:
- Add EcnConfig (node.ecn.*) with configurable loss_threshold (5%)
and etx_threshold (3.0) for transit congestion detection
- Add send_encrypted_link_message_with_ce() that ORs FLAG_CE into FMP
header flags; original method delegates with ce_flag=false
- Compute outgoing_ce = incoming_ce || local congestion on next-hop
link, enabling hop-by-hop CE relay through transit nodes
IPv6 ECN-CE marking:
- Mark ECN-CE (0b11) in IPv6 Traffic Class on received DataPackets
before TUN delivery when FMP CE flag is set
- Only marks ECN-capable packets (ECT(0)/ECT(1)); Not-ECT packets
unchanged per RFC 3168
Transport congestion abstraction and UDP kernel drop detection:
- Add TransportCongestion struct to transport layer for transport-
agnostic local congestion indicators
- Replace tokio::UdpSocket with AsyncFd<socket2::Socket> using
libc::recvmsg() with ancillary data parsing
- Enable SO_RXQ_OVFL for kernel receive buffer drop counter on every
packet, wiring up previously-stubbed UdpStats.kernel_drops
- Add TransportDropState for per-transport delta tracking with 1s
tick sampling via sample_transport_congestion()
- Extend detect_congestion() with transport kernel drop check
alongside MMP loss metrics
Congestion monitoring and control:
- Add CongestionStats (ce_forwarded, ce_received, congestion_detected,
kernel_drop_events) to NodeStats with snapshot serialization
- Wire counters into forwarding path, session handler, and transport
drop sampling with rate-limited warn logging (5s interval)
- Expose congestion data in show_routing control query and
ecn_ce_count in show_mmp peer entries
- Add congestion counters to fipstop routing tab in two-column layout
Chaos harness integration:
- Add query_routing(), query_transports(), snapshot_all_congestion()
to chaos control module
- Add congestion/kernel-drop log analysis in logs module
- Add congestion-stress scenario: 10-node tree, 1 Mbps bandwidth,
5-10% netem loss, heavy iperf3 traffic
- Add IngressConfig for tc ingress policing with per-peer policer
filters simulating upstream bandwidth bottlenecks
- Add iperf3 JSON result capture to traffic manager for throughput
measurement across scenarios
- Add ECN A/B test scenarios (ecn-ab-on/off.yaml) with ingress
policing and comparison script
- Enable TCP ECN negotiation (tcp_ecn=1 sysctl) in container
entrypoint for end-to-end CE propagation
Tests:
- 10 ECN unit/integration tests: mark_ipv6_ecn_ce variants, CE relay
chain (3-node propagation), EcnConfig serde roundtrip
- 3 transport drop congestion detection unit tests
Documentation:
- Update fips-mesh-layer.md: replace outdated CE Echo stub with full
ECN Congestion Signaling section covering detection logic, CE relay,
IPv6 marking, session tracking, and monitoring counters
- Update fips-configuration.md: add node.ecn.* parameter table and
ecn block in complete reference YAML
- Update fips-transport-layer.md: add Congestion Reporting section
with TransportCongestion struct, congestion() trait method, and
per-transport status; document AsyncFd/recvmsg/SO_RXQ_OVFL in UDP
- Update chaos README: add congestion/ECN scenario docs, ingress
traffic control, and iperf3 JSON capture sections
- Update README.md: add ECN to features list and "What works today";
update transport and tooling entries
Non-FIPS clients (e.g., TLS connections) hitting the TCP listen port
produce misleading "unknown FMP phase" errors because the stream reader
checked phase before version. A TLS ClientHello (byte 0x16) parsed as
version=1, phase=6.
Add UnknownVersion error variant and check the version nibble before
phase dispatch, so non-FIPS connections now report "unknown FMP version: 1"
instead of "unknown FMP phase: 0x06".
Ethernet requires a minimum 46-byte payload (60-byte frame minus
14-byte header). NICs/drivers pad shorter frames with zeros. The
Ethernet transport had no length field, so the receiver included
padding bytes in the ciphertext, causing AEAD (ChaCha20-Poly1305)
authentication tag mismatch on small frames like heartbeats (39 bytes
with prefix, padded to 46).
Add a 2-byte little-endian payload length field after the frame type
byte. Wire format changes from [type:1][payload] to
[type:1][length:2 LE][payload]. The receiver uses the length field to
extract exactly the right number of bytes, ignoring any NIC padding.
Frame overhead increases from 1 to 3 bytes, effective MTU adjusted
accordingly. This is a wire-format breaking change requiring
simultaneous upgrade of all Ethernet peers.
Implement TCP transport for FIPS enabling firewall traversal and serving
as the foundation for future Tor transport. This is the first
connection-oriented transport in the system.
Key design decisions:
- FMP header-based framing: reuses existing 4-byte FMP common prefix for
packet boundary recovery with zero framing overhead
- Session survives TCP reconnection: Noise/MMP/FSP state bound to npub,
not TCP connection; MMP liveness is sole authority for peer death
- Connect-on-send: fresh connection on first send, transparent reconnect
- close_connection() trait method for cross-connection deduplication cleanup
New transport files:
- src/transport/tcp/mod.rs: TcpTransport, connection pool, accept loop
- src/transport/tcp/stream.rs: FMP-aware stream reader (shared with Tor)
Modified: transport trait (close_connection), TcpConfig, TransportHandle
match arms, create_transports(), initiate_connection() for connection-
oriented links, cross-connection tie-breaker cleanup, design docs.
Tree announce loop and TCP stability fixes:
- Preserve tree announce rate-limit state across reconnection: carry
forward last_tree_announce_sent_ms when a peer reconnects so the
rate-limit window isn't reset to zero
- Drop oversize TCP packets at sender: pre-send MTU check returns
MtuExceeded instead of writing to the stream, preventing receiver-side
connection teardown and reset-reconnect cycles
Chaos harness:
- TCP transport support: tcp_edges/has_tcp/tcp_peers in SimTopology,
transport-aware config_gen with per-edge transport type, TCP port 443,
pure-TCP node support
- Include all non-Ethernet edges in directed_outbound()
- Fix netem/links log messages to say "IP-based" instead of "UDP"
- Add tcp-chain, tcp-only, and tcp-mesh scenario files
Static harness:
- Transport-aware config generation (get_default_transport, transport_port)
- TCP transport injection via Python post-processing
- Add tcp-chain topology and docker-compose profile
When a peer container is restarted during node churn, the veth pair is
destroyed and recreated. The beacon sender's AF_PACKET socket becomes
stale, producing ENXIO (os error 6) on every send with no recovery.
The beacon sender loop now tracks consecutive send errors and, after 3
consecutive ENXIO failures, attempts to open a fresh AF_PACKET socket
on the same interface. Only the first error in a streak is logged at
warn level to avoid log spam. On successful reopen, beacons resume
normally, allowing peer rediscovery.
Also adds reopen_beacon_socket() helper that creates and wraps a new
PacketSocket without needing access to the EthernetTransport struct.
Update the default UDP bind port from 4000 to 2121 (decimal) and the
default Ethernet EtherType from 0x88B5 to 0x2121 across all source
code, documentation, configuration templates, test fixtures, and
scripts. Remove references to "IEEE 802 experimental range" since
0x2121 is not in that range.
- Ethernet ioctl: cfg-gate the ioctl request parameter type — c_int on
musl, c_ulong on gnu — so the same code compiles on both
x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu and x86_64-unknown-linux-musl targets
- Chaos harness macOS support: replace direct host 'ip link' invocations
with a privileged Docker container helper (--net=host --pid=host) that
shares the Docker VM's namespaces, making veth pair setup work on both
Linux and macOS (where host 'ip' is unavailable and container PIDs
live inside the Docker Desktop VM)
- Python 3.9 compat: add 'from __future__ import annotations' to
docker_exec.py for X|Y union syntax support
- Add deploy/ to .gitignore
Co-authored-by: origami74 <origami74@gmail.com>
Implement raw Ethernet transport using AF_PACKET SOCK_DGRAM on Linux
with EtherType 0x88B5 (IEEE experimental range) and 1-byte frame type
prefix (0x00=data, 0x01=beacon).
Transport implementation:
- EthernetConfig with interface, ethertype, MTU, buffer sizes, and
four independent discovery knobs (discovery, announce, auto_connect,
accept_connections)
- PacketSocket/AsyncPacketSocket wrappers with ioctl helpers for
interface index, MAC address, and MTU queries
- EthernetTransport with Transport trait impl, async start/stop/send,
receive loop dispatching data frames and discovery beacons
- Discovery beacons (34 bytes: type + version + x-only pubkey) with
DiscoveryBuffer for peer accumulation and dedup
- Atomic statistics counters (frames, bytes, errors, beacons)
- Platform-gated with #[cfg(target_os = "linux")]
Transport-layer discovery integration:
- Promote auto_connect() and accept_connections() to Transport trait
with default implementations and TransportHandle dispatch
- Extract initiate_connection() so both static peer config and
discovery auto-connect share the same handshake initiation path
- Add poll_transport_discovery() to the tick handler to drain
discovery buffers and auto-connect to discovered peers
- Enforce accept_connections() in handle_msg1() — transports with
accept_connections=false silently drop inbound handshakes
Node integration:
- create_transports() handles Ethernet named instances
- resolve_ethernet_addr() parses "interface/mac" address format
- transport_mtu() generalized for multi-transport operation
Test harness:
- VethPair RAII struct for veth pair lifecycle management
- Three #[ignore] integration tests requiring root/CAP_NET_RAW:
two-node handshake, data exchange, mixed transport coexistence
- Chaos harness: transport-aware topology model, VethManager for
veth pairs between Docker containers, Ethernet-aware config gen,
netem split (HTB+u32 for UDP, root netem for veth), transport-aware
link flaps and node churn with veth re-setup
- Container entrypoint waits for configured Ethernet interfaces
before starting FIPS (handles veth creation timing)
- New scenarios: ethernet-only (4-node ring), ethernet-mesh (6-node
mixed UDP+Ethernet with netem and link flaps)
Documentation:
- fips-transport-layer.md: Ethernet section, beacon discovery, WiFi
compatibility, updated discovery state, trait surface additions,
implementation status table
- fips-configuration.md: Ethernet parameter table, named instances,
peer address format, mixed UDP+Ethernet example, complete reference
- fips-wire-formats.md: Ethernet frame type prefix note
Add link_mtu(&TransportAddr) method to the Transport trait with a
default implementation that falls back to the transport-wide mtu().
This enables transports like BLE to report per-connection MTU values
while maintaining backward compatibility for UDP and other transports
that use a single MTU for all links.
Update the forwarding and session send paths to query link_mtu() with
the next-hop peer's current address, falling back to transport-wide
mtu() when no address is available.
Log a warning when the kernel clamps SO_RCVBUF or SO_SNDBUF below
the requested size, directing the operator to increase rmem_max or
wmem_max. Document buffer size defaults and sysctl requirements in
the Docker config template.
Under high-throughput forwarding, the kernel default 212KB receive
buffer overflows, silently dropping ~11% of UDP datagrams at transit
nodes. Add configurable recv_buf_size and send_buf_size to UdpConfig
(default 2MB each) using socket2 for pre-bind buffer configuration.
Startup log now reports actual buffer sizes granted by the kernel.
Requires net.core.rmem_max >= 2097152 on the host for the full 2MB
to take effect; otherwise the kernel silently clamps.
Per-packet happy-path events (UDP send/receive, TUN I/O, MMP report
processing, TreeAnnounce/FilterAnnounce sent, RTT samples) moved from
debug to trace. Periodic maintenance and retry scheduling moved from
info to debug. Session state changes (established, initiated, torn
down) and transport stop promoted from debug to info. MMP report send
failures demoted from warn to debug (normal under churn).
Wire format:
- Add HandshakeMessageType enum (NoiseIKMsg1=0x01, NoiseIKMsg2=0x02)
- Define unified TLV framing for handshake and post-handshake messages
- Update fips-design.md and fips-protocol-flow.md with wire format details
Initialization:
- Defer TUN setup until after peer connections initiated
- Order: packet channel → transports → peers → TUN
Logging cleanup:
- Consolidate node/TUN info logs into aligned multi-line format
- TUN shutdown: single start/stop message, remove intermediate noise
- Remove ip link show callout and redundant Starting node message
- Change UDP transport stopped to debug level
- Add name field to UdpTransport for named config instances
- Add name() and local_addr() accessors to TransportHandle
- Update UdpTransport logging to include instance name
- Remove redundant Node-level transport startup logging
- Reorder Node::start() to initialize transports before TUN
- Added TransportHandle enum for polymorphic transport dispatch
- Node now owns transports via HashMap<TransportId, TransportHandle>
- Added packet channel fields (packet_tx, packet_rx) to Node
- Transport initialization in Node::start() with graceful degradation
- Transport shutdown in Node::stop() before TUN cleanup
- Factory method create_transports() instantiates from config
Configuration redesign:
- New transports section with TransportInstances<T> enum
- Single instance: config directly under transport type (no naming overhead)
- Named instances: nested under instance names
- #[serde(deny_unknown_fields)] ensures correct untagged enum matching
- Instance names are Option<&str> - None for single, Some(name) for named
Updated Node transport methods:
- transport_count(), get_transport(), get_transport_mut()
- transport_ids(), packet_rx()
All 189 tests pass (4 new config parsing tests).
- Convert transport.rs to module directory (transport/mod.rs + transport/udp.rs)
- Add packet channel types for transport→Node communication:
- ReceivedPacket struct with transport_id, remote_addr, data, timestamp
- PacketTx/PacketRx type aliases for tokio mpsc channels
- packet_channel() constructor function
- Add UdpConfig to config.rs (enabled, bind_addr, mtu)
- Implement UdpTransport with async lifecycle:
- start_async(): binds socket, spawns receive loop
- stop_async(): aborts receive task, closes socket
- send_async(): sends packet with MTU validation
- discover(): returns empty (peer config is node-level)
- Update lib.rs with new re-exports
- Add tokio net and time features to Cargo.toml
All 185 tests pass.
Johnathan Corgan
