Chaos scenarios run four at a time under local CI, but every one of them claimed the container names fips-node-nNN and wrote its generated configs and compose file to the same generated-configs/sim directory. Container names are global in Docker and are not scoped by the compose project, so concurrent scenarios collided on both, and a scenario could start containers from a compose file another had overwritten.
Thread the existing FIPS_CI_NAME_SUFFIX into the simulation. run_chaos narrows the run-wide suffix to the scenario, and the sim reads it once when the topology is built, applying it to the container names and to the config directory basename. The compose template renders the name through the topology accessor instead of duplicating the literal, so one expression produces every chaos container name.
The suffix is empty when the variable is unset, so a bare chaos.sh run and the hosted CI jobs render byte-identical names and paths. Verified by rendering every scenario's compose file before and after with the variable unset and diffing.
Chaos harness enhancements:
- transport_mix config: weighted random transport assignment for random
topologies (erdos_renyi, random_geometric) with UDP/Ethernet/TCP
- Replace LoRa with Bluetooth L2CAP in cost-based/mixed-tech scenarios
using realistic netem values (15-40ms delay, 5-15ms jitter, 2-8% loss)
- New churn-20-mixed scenario: 20-node Erdos-Renyi with 60% UDP,
20% Ethernet, 20% TCP, full netem/link-flap/churn/bandwidth config
- Expanded chaos README with full scenario catalog in four categories
Static harness:
- Updated README with topology table and scenario count
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
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
Cost-based parent selection:
- Replace depth-only parent selection with effective_depth = depth + link_cost
- link_cost computed from locally measured MMP metrics: etx * (1.0 + srtt_ms / 100.0)
- Prevents bottleneck subtrees in heterogeneous networks where a LoRa link
at depth 1 would otherwise always beat fiber at depth 2
- Configurable hysteresis (default 0.2) prevents marginal parent switches
- Configurable hold-down timer (default 30s) suppresses re-evaluation
after parent switch
- Mandatory switches (parent lost, root change) bypass both safeguards
- Link costs passed as HashMap parameter to keep TreeState pure
Periodic re-evaluation:
- evaluate_parent() was only called on TreeAnnounce receipt or parent loss;
after tree stabilization, link degradation went undetected
- Added timer-based re-evaluation (reeval_interval_secs, default 60s) that
calls evaluate_parent() from the tick handler with current MMP link costs
- Respects existing hold-down and hysteresis safeguards
- Short-circuits when disabled or <2 peers
Design documentation:
- Update 7 design docs to reflect cost-based parent selection
- Replace depth-only algorithm descriptions with effective_depth model
- Replace rejected cumulative path cost spec with local-only design rationale
- Rewrite Example 2 (heterogeneous links) for local-only cost model
- Update config docs: parent_switch_threshold replaced by parent_hysteresis,
hold_down_secs, reeval_interval_secs
Chaos simulation enhancements:
- fips_overrides with deep merge for per-scenario FIPS config customization
- Explicit topology algorithm for deterministic test graphs
- Control socket querying via fipsctl for tree/MMP snapshot collection
- Edge existence validation in netem manager
- Per-link netem policy overrides
- 9 new chaos scenarios covering cost avoidance, depth-vs-cost tradeoffs,
stability, mixed topologies, periodic re-evaluation, and bottleneck parent
12 new unit tests, 667 total passing, clippy clean.
Auto-reconnect:
- Add per-peer auto_reconnect config (default true) to PeerConfig
- schedule_reconnect() feeds removed peers back into retry system with
unlimited retries and exponential backoff after MMP dead timeout
- RetryState gains reconnect flag to distinguish startup retries
(max_retries-limited) from auto-reconnect (unlimited)
Retry re-fire fix:
- process_pending_retries() now pushes retry_after_ms past the handshake
timeout window after successful initiate_peer_connection(), preventing
retries from firing every tick with no backoff
Chaos sim improvements:
- Directed outbound configs: BFS spanning tree + lower-ID-first assignment
eliminates dual-connect race conditions in simulation
- Save runner log (runner.log) alongside per-node logs for event correlation
- Increase churn-20 traffic aggressiveness and node churn (max_down_nodes
3→5, traffic interval min 0s, duration max 90s, concurrent flows 5→10)
Johnathan Corgan