cost-avoidance and mixed-technology decide a parent by measured link cost
(etx * (1 + srtt_ms/100)). Under the local CI's 4-way-parallel chaos the fast
fiber link's measured srtt spikes from host scheduling and can exceed the
Bluetooth link's, flipping the choice and reddening a run that proves nothing
about the daemon. The old margin was ~0.4 cost units, which a ~24ms one-sided
scheduling blip closes.
Widen the Bluetooth delay to 150-250ms so the margin dwarfs any plausible
one-sided spike. The link still establishes well within the handshake budget
(a ~500ms RTT against a 30s stale-handshake window), so the losing candidate
is still a real, established peer rather than an absent one.
Add a netem mutation exclude_edges option and use it in mixed-technology to
pin the two links n08 chooses between, so a random degradation can't flip the
asserted comparison either. An unknown excluded edge is a hard error, since a
silent no-op would reintroduce the flakiness it exists to remove.
Validated by running both scenarios repeatedly under heavier-than-CI
concurrent load: the parent choice holds every time.
Four scenarios exist to test cost-based parent selection and each named
its expected outcome in a comment that nothing read. Add a tree_parents
assertion mapping a node to the parent it must have in the final tree
snapshot, and encode it for the two scenarios whose stated outcome the
implementation meets: cost-avoidance (n04 takes the fiber n03) and
bottleneck-parent (n06 takes the fiber n03, n09 keeps its only parent
n05). Both hold in all six provably-completed archived runs.
The other two are left unasserted on purpose, and each for a different
reason worth keeping distinct.
mixed-technology says n06 and n08 should both pick the fiber parent n03.
They do not. Across the five completed archived runs n06 picks n10 three
times and n08 picks n04 four times. Encoding the criterion as written
would red the scenario most runs, and encoding the observed behaviour
would bless something nobody specified, so the disagreement is recorded
at the site as an open question. n06 preferring n10 may well be correct
and the comment stale, since n10 reaches it by fiber too.
depth-vs-cost is different: its validation line does not name an outcome
at all, saying only that the choice "reflects the actual cost tradeoff",
which either answer satisfies. The corpus shows both occurring under one
seed, three runs to two. That scenario needs a protocol decision about
which parent is correct before it can have an assertion.
Compare parents by address resolved from the snapshot's own
my_node_addr, and fail rather than skip when a node is absent from the
snapshot or still claims to be its own root. Those two states are the
common ones in the older corpus and both produce the same "no match" a
wrong parent does, so only separating them keeps a harness problem from
reading as a routing verdict.
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
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.
Johnathan Corgan