network update: sprint 46

blog/2023-10-02-network.md

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+---
+title: Network Team Update
+slug: 2023-10-02-network
+authors: coot
+tags: [network]
+hide_table_of_contents: false
+---
+
+## High-level overview of [sprint 45][sprint-45]
+
+[sprint-45]: https://github.com/orgs/input-output-hk/projects/19/views/16?filterQuery=sprint%3A%22sprint+45%22
+
+### Bootstrap Peers
+
+We started reviewing the bootstrap peers PR, [ouroboros-network#4615].
+
+### Towards Typed Protocols 0.2.0.0
+
+We discovered a performance regression when using `typed-protocols-0.2.0.0`, and we
+started investigating where it comes from.  Currently, we see that
+`typed-protocols-0.2.0.0` can outperform `typed-protocols-0.1.0.0` when running
+in isolation with a simple `ping-pong` protocol, so the regression might be in
+the new block fetch implementation which comes with `typed-protocols-0.2.0.0`
+See 
+
+### Tech Debt
+
+We merged two PRs written by Galois engineers:
+
+* a pull request which refactors the main entry function for P2P, see [ouroboros-network#3834]; 
+* a pull request which reviews usage of `unsafe` function in the network code based.
+
+### IO-Sim
+
+#### IOSimPOR
+We found and fixed a bug in `IOSimPOR`.  We'd like to thank Prof. John Hughes
+(Quviq AB) for helping us with debugging the issue.
+
+We also provided a more uniform API for `IOSimPOR`, and added ways to make the
+debugging similar problems in the future easier.
+
+We removed the usage of `unsafePerformIO` from `IOSimPOR`, which also means
+removing parallel evaluation of discovered races.  We found out that it gives
+only 25% better performance.  In the future QuickCheck will offer running
+different cases in parallel which should provide better performance as there
+are no dependencies between the evaluation of different test cases, while schedules
+are discovered while running which limits the possible gains from running them
+concurrently.  The performance was not the only factor though.  When using
+parallelism in the lazy `ST` monad we'd need to rely on memory guarantees of
+`STRefs`.  In `GHC-9.6` they share the implementation with `IORef`s, but it
+might not be the case in the future.
+
+#### IOSim
+
+To prepare for the next release, we consolidate packages taking advantage of
+the public sublibraries supported now both by `cabal` and `Hackage`.   This is
+a work in progress, [io-sim#114].
+
+### P2P adoption
+
+In the last two weeks, we've seen increase in P2P adoption.  Karl Knutsson
+([Cardano Foundation][CF]) is investigating this issue.
+![P2P relays](/images/network/2023-10-04-p2p-relays.png)
+
+
+The following graphs show several different versions of relays running on the mainnet.  The
+green line `NodeToNodeVersionV10.True` denotes P2P relays.
+![node versions](/images/network/2023-10-04-relay-versions.png)
+
+### Open Source
+
+We upstreamed our FFI bindings to Windows named pipes to `Win32` package, the
+PR was accepted and merged.
+
+We also received an external contribution which enhanced our documentation, see
+[ouroboros-network#4676].
+
+[ouroboros-network#4615]: https://github.com/input-output-hk/ouroboros-network/issues/4615
+[ouroboros-network#3834]: https://github.com/input-output-hk/ouroboros-network/issues/3834
+[ouroboros-network#3835]: https://github.com/input-output-hk/ouroboros-network/issues/3835
+[ouroboros-network#4676]: https://github.com/input-output-hk/ouroboros-network/pull/4676
+[io-sim#113]: https://github.com/input-output-hk/io-sim/issues/113
+[io-sim#114]: https://github.com/input-output-hk/io-sim/issues/114