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Johnathan Corgan
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The node that answers a link rekey stored its new session as pending and cut over to it on its own next tick, before the initiator had read the reply. When that reply was lost, the initiator abandoned the cycle and freed the index the responder was now sealing to, so frames from the responder were dropped at the initiator until the link was torn down. The pending session now records which side of the handshake produced it. Only a pending session this node initiated is cut over by the rekey tick. One it answered is promoted when a frame on the new keys from the initiator authenticates against it, as the data path already does, and a held pending session also stops this node from starting a rekey of its own that would overwrite it. If the initiator never adopts the keys, the responder drops the pending session after a hold that outlasts the initiator's resend ladder and cutover, its first heartbeat and the link-dead timeout, and frees its index, so the next rekey can be answered. The lost-reply test now runs, and new tests cover the hold, the retirement and the rekey that completes after it.
FIPS Design
Architectural and protocol-level explanations for FIPS — the why and the how behind the wire and the system. For wire formats and configuration keys, see reference/. For task recipes, see how-to/. For end-to-end lessons, see tutorials/.
Reading Order
Start with fips-concepts.md for the novice-friendly framing of what FIPS is and why, then move to fips-architecture.md for the protocol stack, identity model, and two-layer encryption walkthrough. From there, follow the protocol stack from bottom to top. After the stack, fips-mesh-operation.md explains how the pieces work together at runtime. Cross-cutting and supporting documents cover specific subsystems in detail.
Foundations
| Document | Description |
|---|---|
| fips-concepts.md | What FIPS is, why it exists, mental model |
| fips-architecture.md | Protocol stack, identity, two-layer encryption |
| fips-prior-work.md | Designs and protocols FIPS builds on |
Protocol Stack
| Document | Description |
|---|---|
| fips-transport-layer.md | Transport layer: datagram delivery over arbitrary media |
| fips-mesh-layer.md | FIPS Mesh Protocol (FMP): peer authentication, link encryption, forwarding |
| fips-session-layer.md | FIPS Session Protocol (FSP): end-to-end encryption, sessions |
| fips-ipv6-adapter.md | IPv6 adaptation: TUN interface, DNS, MTU enforcement |
| fips-native-api.md | Native datagram API: pubkey-addressed flows over FSP, and what it is instead of the TUN path |
Cross-Cutting
| Document | Description |
|---|---|
| fips-mmp.md | Metrics Measurement Protocol (link + session) |
| fips-mtu.md | Path MTU model, encapsulation overhead, PMTUD |
| fips-security.md | fips0 interface threat model and default-deny baseline |
Mesh Behavior
| Document | Description |
|---|---|
| fips-mesh-operation.md | How the mesh operates: routing, discovery, error recovery |
| fips-nostr-discovery.md | Optional Nostr-mediated peer discovery and UDP NAT hole-punch |
| port-advertisement-and-nat-traversal.md | Nostr-signaled port advertisement and UDP NAT-traversal protocol; generic, with FIPS as an example implementation |
Deeper Dives
| Document | Description |
|---|---|
| fips-spanning-tree.md | Spanning tree algorithms: root discovery, parent selection, coordinates |
| fips-bloom-filters.md | Bloom filter properties: FPR analysis, size classes, split-horizon |
| spanning-tree-dynamics.md | Spanning tree walkthroughs: convergence scenarios, worked examples |
Adjacent Components
| Document | Description |
|---|---|
| fips-gateway.md | fips-gateway service: outbound (LAN-to-mesh) DNS-proxy + virtual-IP NAT and inbound (mesh-to-LAN) port-forwarding, sharing one nftables table |