Files
fips/docs/design
Martti MalmiandJohnathan Corgan d548add18d Reject stale MMP receiver reports
Ignore duplicate or counter-regressed ReceiverReports before updating
RTT, loss, goodput, or ETX, so a delayed or reordered report can no
longer poison link metrics. Compute the RTT-from-echo sample with
checked timestamp arithmetic and reject zero, negative, or out-of-range
results instead of risking wrap or underflow on untrusted wire values.

On the sender side, when receiver dwell time overflows the u16 wire
field, suppress the timestamp echo (send 0) and saturate dwell to
u16::MAX rather than truncating, so a bogus small RTT cannot be formed.

Adds duplicate, out-of-order, wrapped-add, and future-dated (checked_sub)
sample tests, asserts loss and goodput stay unchanged on a dropped
duplicate, and covers the dwell-overflow echo suppression. Documents the
behavior in the MMP design note and CHANGELOG.

Co-authored-by: Johnathan Corgan <johnathan@corganlabs.com>
2026-06-07 23:30:35 +00:00
..
2026-06-07 23:30:35 +00:00

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

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