A hierarchical front-end gateway and blockchain architecture

Abstract

The present invention provides a hierarchical front-end gateway and a blockchain architecture, wherein a sub-channel is established between the hierarchical front-end gateway and a Peer node or other hierarchical front-end gateways, wherein the sub-channel puts the business between client nodes, or the business between client nodes and Peer nodes on the chain, and endorses and verifies the transactions in the sub-channel. The present invention deploys the hierarchical front-end gateway on the client node side, has the transaction endorsement and verification function of the Peer node, supports the establishment of a sub-channel in the original Fabric channel, and forms a blockchain architecture of hierarchical services, thereby achieving more fine-grained data isolation or launching new businesses.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the field of communication technology, and in particular to a hierarchical front-end gateway and blockchain architecture. Background Art

[0002] There are currently two main blockchain architecture models: the sorting-execution model (OE model) and the execution-sorting-verification model (EOV model). The EOV model is derived from the need to improve blockchain throughput and flexibility and meet the needs of enterprise-level applications for blockchain technology. It can support pluggable applications such as smart contracts and consensus mechanisms, and its typical representative is Hyperledger Fabric.

[0003] Hyperledger Fabric introduces the concept of organization (Org). An organization (Org) can have multiple peer nodes, and multiple organizations Org form a channel. Multiple channels can be established in a Fabric system, and transactions and data between channels are independent of each other. The network structure of a single channel is a mesh structure with peers between nodes. Peer nodes in the same channel have the same status. Transactions issued by client nodes in the channel are endorsed according to the endorsement policy. All peer nodes verify all transactions in the channel and record them after verification. However, client nodes cannot obtain ledgers and cannot participate in transaction endorsement and verification. Figure 1 The network architecture of the Hyperledger Fabric system shown in Figure 1, and Figure 2 The transaction processing flow of the Hyperledger Fabric system shown in Figure 1.

[0004] At present, when the Fabric architecture builds a peer-to-peer network structure with equal status of peer nodes, there will be some problems when there are a large number of nodes. For example, in order to meet the needs of more enterprises and institutions to join the Fabric alliance chain network, some units will join the alliance chain as client nodes, participate in transaction release, and go online. At this time, the enterprises and institutions connected in this way need to transfer their business data to the unit to which the Peer node belongs, initiate transactions, execute smart contracts, and the consistency ledger is also maintained by the Peer node. Enterprises and institutions are worried about data outflow. Moreover, enterprises and institutions that access the Fabric system as client nodes or between them and enterprises and institutions that already have Peer nodes must re-apply for the deployment of fully functional Peer nodes to establish channels, which greatly limits the actual application and promotion of Fabric, especially in large group enterprises, industry alliances, or blockchain as a large-scale infrastructure construction. Summary of the invention

[0005] The purpose of the embodiments of the present invention is to provide a hierarchical front-end gateway and blockchain architecture to solve the technical problem that when accessing the Fabric system in the form of client nodes, the data between different enterprises and institutions lack security isolation, and the enterprises and institutions that access the Fabric system in the form of client nodes cannot participate in the establishment of new channels as an independent party.

[0006] In order to solve the above problems, an embodiment of the present invention provides a hierarchical front-end gateway, which is deployed on a client node. A sub-channel is established between the hierarchical front-end gateway and a Peer node or other hierarchical front-end gateways. The sub-channel puts the business between client nodes, or the business between client nodes and Peer nodes, on the chain, and endorses and verifies the transactions in the sub-channel.

[0007] The hierarchical front-end gateway verifies the authenticity of the identity of the user accessing the client node and the integrity of the data submitted by the user.

[0008] The hierarchical front-end gateway synchronizes the account books and status data related to the business accessing the hierarchical front-end gateway with the connected Peer node.

[0009] The hierarchical front-end gateway extends a smart contract for the sub-channel, and the smart contract is only applicable to the Peer node or the hierarchical front-end gateway related to the sub-channel.

[0010] The subchannel is established between the hierarchical front gateway and the peer node or other hierarchical front gateway, including:

[0011] Sub-channels are established between different hierarchical front-end gateways of the same Peer node;

[0012] Sub-channels are established between hierarchical front-end gateways under different peer nodes;

[0013] Or a sub-channel is established between the hierarchical front-end gateway and other peer nodes.

[0014] The embodiment of the present invention further provides a blockchain architecture, which is deployed in a point-to-point single-layer mesh structure, and the blockchain architecture includes a first client node, a second client node and a Peer node;

[0015] The Peer node corresponds to one or more of the first client nodes, and one or more of the second client nodes;

[0016] The first client node is deployed with a hierarchical front gateway as described in any one of claims 1 to 5, and the second client node is not deployed with the hierarchical front gateway;

[0017] A subchannel is established between the first client node and a peer node or other first client nodes.

[0018] The blockchain architecture further includes an Orderer node for sorting transactions sent by the Peer node or the first client node.

[0019] The Orderer node packages the transaction order into blocks and broadcasts the blocks to the hierarchical front-end gateways or Peer nodes in the sub-channel.

[0020] The block is forwarded to the hierarchical front-end gateway through the connected Peer node, or is directly broadcast to the hierarchical front-end gateway through the cluster formed by the Orderer node.

[0021] The first client node establishes different sub-channels with the Peer node or other first client nodes to deploy different services.

[0022] The above technical solution of the present invention has at least the following beneficial effects:

[0023] The hierarchical front-end gateway and blockchain architecture provided by the embodiment of the present invention are deployed on the client node side, have the transaction endorsement and verification functions of the Peer node, support the establishment of sub-channels in the original Fabric channel, and form a blockchain architecture for hierarchical services. The embodiment of the present invention solves the problem of too limited expansion of Peer nodes, and enterprises and institutions that originally accessed as client nodes can establish sub-channels with units in the alliance without deploying complete Peer nodes, realizing functions similar to channels in the Fabric architecture, thereby achieving more fine-grained data isolation or launching new businesses. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0024] Figure 1 A network architecture diagram representing the existing Hyperledger Fabric system;

[0025] Figure 2 A transaction processing flow chart showing the existing Hyperledger Fabric system;

[0026] Figure 3 A schematic diagram of a blockchain architecture provided by an embodiment of the present invention is shown;

[0027] Figure 4 A schematic diagram of a sub-channel transaction processing flow provided by an embodiment of the present invention is shown. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0028] In order to make the technical problems, technical solutions and advantages to be solved by the present invention more clear, a detailed description will be given below with reference to the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments.

[0029] The hierarchical front-end gateway provided in the embodiment of the present invention is deployed on the client node side. A sub-channel is established between the front-end gateway and the Peer node or other hierarchical front-end gateways. The sub-channel puts the business between the client nodes, or the business between the client node and the Peer node, on the chain, and endorses and verifies the transactions in the sub-channel.

[0030] Specifically, the Peer node corresponds to one or more client nodes. The first client node establishes different sub-channels with the Peer node or other first client nodes to deploy different services. Some of the client nodes in the embodiments of the present invention deploy the hierarchical front-end gateway, while others do not. The embodiments of the present invention only construct sub-channels between the client nodes that deploy the hierarchical front-end gateway to form a sub-channel network to realize the transmission of transaction data.

[0031] The hierarchical front-end gateway verifies the authenticity of the identity of the user accessing the client node and the integrity of the data submitted by the user for transactions within the sub-channel; the hierarchical front-end gateway synchronizes the account books and status data related to the business accessed by the hierarchical front-end gateway with the connected Peer node; the hierarchical front-end gateway extends the smart contract for the sub-channel, and the smart contract is only applicable to the Peer node or hierarchical front-end gateway related to the sub-channel.

[0032] The sub-channels established between the above-mentioned hierarchical front gateway and other hierarchical front gateways include: establishing sub-channels between different hierarchical front gateways of the same Peer node, or establishing sub-channels between hierarchical front gateways under different Peer nodes. The sub-channels established between the above-mentioned hierarchical front gateway and the Peer node refer to the sub-channels established between the hierarchical front gateway and other Peer nodes, and each hierarchical front gateway in the embodiment of the present invention has a corresponding Peer node.

[0033] The hierarchical front-end gateway provided in the embodiment of the present invention is deployed on the client node side, has the transaction endorsement and verification functions of the Peer node, supports the establishment of sub-channels in the original Fabric channel, and forms a blockchain architecture for hierarchical services. The embodiment of the present invention solves the problem of too limited expansion of Peer nodes, and enterprises and institutions that originally accessed as client nodes can establish sub-channels with units in the alliance without deploying complete Peer nodes, realizing functions similar to channels in the Fabric architecture, thereby achieving more fine-grained data isolation or launching new businesses.

[0034] The hierarchical front-end gateway provided in the embodiment of the present invention can establish sub-channels between different hierarchical front-end gateways of the same Peer node, between hierarchical front-end gateways under different Peer nodes, or between the hierarchical front-end gateway and other Peer nodes, and can perform more fine-grained data security isolation design. The way of deploying the hierarchical front-end gateway is lighter than that of the full Peer node, and has lower requirements on the environment of the deployment organization. It can be applied to large group enterprises, industry alliances or blockchain as large-scale infrastructure construction.

[0035] The embodiment of the present invention provides a blockchain architecture based on the hierarchical front-end gateway provided above, and the blockchain architecture is deployed in a point-to-point single-layer mesh structure, including a first client node, a second client node and a Peer node;

[0036] The Peer node corresponds to one or more first client nodes and one or more second client nodes. The first client nodes deploy the above-mentioned hierarchical front-end gateway, and the second client nodes do not deploy the hierarchical front-end gateway; a sub-channel is established between the first client node and the Peer node or other first client nodes.

[0037] The hierarchical service blockchain network architecture proposed in the embodiment of the present invention is as follows: Figure 3 , the first client node establishes different sub-channels with the Peer node or other first client nodes to deploy different services. Assume that one Org deploys one Peer node. When a unit accessed as a client node in a single-layer blockchain network with peers between nodes has new business needs or needs for data isolation between units, the above-mentioned hierarchical front-end gateway is deployed on the corresponding client node side, and a sub-channel is formed with the business-related parties. On the unit side, the endorsement and verification of the transaction in the sub-channel are completed by the front-end gateway, rather than the docked Peer node. The Peer node only needs to synchronize data with the front-end gateway on demand. The embodiment of the present invention can effectively reduce the load of the Peer node in the original blockchain network, thereby improving the business and organizational carrying capacity of the overall blockchain system. In the traditional architecture, enterprises A, B, and C, as client nodes of the blockchain network, cannot establish independent channels, and all chain requests are executed through the docked Peer1; the same applies to enterprises D and E.

[0038] Figure 3 In the blockchain architecture, three implementation methods are provided for establishing sub-channels using hierarchical front-end gateways:

[0039] 1) Sub-channels are established between different hierarchical front-end gateways of the same Peer node.

[0040] In the original blockchain network, the client nodes of enterprises B, C, and D are all connected to the Peer1 node. If enterprises B, C, and D have separate business on-chain requirements that are unrelated to other enterprises, a hierarchical front-end gateway is deployed for each enterprise B, C, and D to establish a sub-channel network, such as the sub-channel network 1 in the figure, to carry out the transaction on-chain between the businesses of enterprises B, C, and D. It can be seen that sub-channels are established between different client nodes of the same Peer node.

[0041] 2) Sub-channels are established between hierarchical front-end gateways under different peer nodes.

[0042] In the original blockchain network, the client nodes of enterprises C and D are connected to the Peer1 node, and the client node of enterprise E is connected to the Peer2 node. If enterprises C, D, and E have separate business on-chain requirements that are unrelated to other enterprises (including enterprises that deploy Peer nodes), a hierarchical front-end gateway is deployed for enterprises C, D, and E respectively, and a sub-channel network can be established, such as the sub-channel network 2 in the figure, to carry out the transaction on-chain between the businesses of enterprises C, D, and E. It can be seen that sub-channels are established between some client node enterprises under different Peer nodes.

[0043] 3) Establish sub-channels between the hierarchical front-end gateway and other peer nodes.

[0044] In the original blockchain network, the client node of enterprise E connects to the Peer2 node, and the enterprises where the Peer2 and PeerN nodes are located can be directly on the chain. If there is a separate business on-chain demand between enterprise E and the enterprises where the Peer2 and PeerN nodes are located, which is unrelated to other enterprises. A hierarchical front-end gateway can be deployed for enterprise E to establish a sub-channel network, such as sub-channel network 3 in the figure, to carry out the transaction on-chain between the business of enterprise E and the enterprises where the Peer2 and PeerN nodes are located. It can be seen that a sub-channel is established between the client node enterprise and the enterprise that deploys the Peer node.

[0045] The functions of the above-mentioned hierarchical front-end gateway include:

[0046] Verify the authenticity of the identity of the connected client node and the integrity of the data submitted; create new sub-channels with other peer nodes or front-end gateways, and support their changes and deletions; support endorsement and verification of transactions within sub-channels; according to the needs of the sub-channel, the hierarchical front-end gateway and the connected peer node regularly / on-demand synchronize the ledger and status data related to the business connected to the hierarchical front-end gateway; the hierarchical front-end gateway supports the extension of smart contracts for sub-channel business needs, and the smart contract is only applicable to the front-end gateway or peer node related to the sub-channel.

[0047] After the front-end gateway is used to establish a sub-channel in the embodiment of the present invention, the original transaction processing process of Fabric is adjusted accordingly, such as Figure 4 The transaction processing flow using sub-channels is shown.

[0048] 0) The front-end gateway synchronizes the ledger with the connected Peer node regularly / on demand, as well as the StateDB data related to the gateway business;

[0049] 1) The client sends a transaction proposal to the connected front-end gateway, as well as other endorsing peers and front-end gateways specified by the endorsement policy;

[0050] 2) The front-end gateway / Peer node responsible for endorsement executes the smart contract to complete the endorsement;

[0051] 3) The endorsement result is returned to the Client;

[0052] 4) The client collects the endorsement results that satisfy the endorsement policy and generates a transaction;

[0053] 5) Submit the transaction to the Orderer cluster;

[0054] 6) The Orderer cluster completes the ordering of transactions and packages them into blocks;

[0055] The blockchain architecture of the embodiment of the present invention includes an Orderer node. Multiple Orderer nodes form an Orderer cluster. The Orderer node can sort the transactions sent by the Peer node or the first client node and package the transaction sorts into blocks.

[0056] 7) The Orderer node broadcasts the block to the front-end gateway or Peer node in the sub-channel. According to the sub-channel requirements, the block can be forwarded to the hierarchical front-end gateway by the connected Peer node, or directly broadcast to the hierarchical front-end gateway by the Orderer cluster. The two implementation methods are not limited, and the first method is used as an example in the flowchart;

[0057] 8) The front-end gateway / Peer node that receives the block verifies the validity of the transactions in the block and records the transactions;

[0058] 9) Notify the client of the on-chain status of the transaction initiated;

[0059] 10) The front-end gateway synchronizes the accounting results and State data to the connected Peer node.

[0060] The blockchain architecture provided by the embodiment of the present invention deploys a hierarchical front-end gateway on the client node side. The hierarchical front-end gateway has the transaction endorsement and verification functions of the Peer node, supports the establishment of a sub-channel in the original Fabric channel, so that transactions can be conducted in the sub-channel, forming a blockchain architecture of hierarchical services. The embodiment of the present invention solves the problem of excessively limited expansion of Peer nodes, and enterprises and institutions that originally accessed as client nodes can establish sub-channels with units in the alliance without deploying complete Peer nodes, realizing functions similar to channels in the Fabric architecture, thereby achieving more fine-grained data isolation or launching new businesses.

[0061] The blockchain architecture in the embodiment of the present invention is in a point-to-point single-layer mesh structure. By deploying a hierarchical front-end gateway before the client node, establishing a sub-channel, building a secondary sub-channel network, and constructing a hierarchical blockchain network, the performance impact of adding nodes and businesses on the blockchain system is reduced, and to a certain extent, the node number limit of the blockchain is broken, so that a set of blockchain systems can serve more organizations and more business applications.

[0062] Those skilled in the art should understand that the embodiments of the present application can be provided as methods or systems. Therefore, the present application can take the form of a complete hardware embodiment, a complete software embodiment, or an embodiment combining software and hardware.

[0063] The present application is described with reference to the flowcharts and / or block diagrams of the methods or devices (systems) according to the embodiments of the present application. It should be understood that each process and / or box in the flowchart and / or block diagram, as well as the combination of the processes and / or boxes in the flowchart and / or block diagram, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions can be provided to a processor of a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, an embedded processor, or other programmable data processing device to generate a machine, so that the instructions executed by the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing device generate instructions for implementing the processes in the flowchart and / or block diagram. Figure 1 A device that specifies functions in one or more processes and / or one or more blocks.

[0064] These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable storage medium that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing device to work in a specific manner, so that the instructions stored in the computer-readable storage medium produce a paper product including an instruction device, which implements the process Figure 1 A process or multiple processes and / or boxes Figure 1 A function specified in one or more boxes.

[0065] These computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing device so that the computer or other programmable device executes a series of operating steps to produce a computer-implemented process, thereby providing instructions executed on the computer or other programmable device for implementing the process. Figure 1 A process or multiple processes and / or boxes Figure 1 The steps for the functions specified in one or more boxes.

[0066] The above is a preferred embodiment of the present invention. It should be pointed out that for ordinary technicians in this technical field, several improvements and modifications can be made without departing from the principles of the present invention. These improvements and modifications should also be regarded as the scope of protection of the present invention.

Claims

1. A hierarchical front-end gateway, deployed on the client node side, characterized in that: A subchannel is established between the hierarchical front-end gateway and the peer node or other hierarchical front-end gateways. The subchannel puts the business between client nodes, or the business between client nodes and peer nodes, on the chain, and endorses and verifies the transactions in the subchannel; The hierarchical front-end gateway synchronizes the account books and status data related to the business connected to the hierarchical front-end gateway with the connected peer node; The hierarchical front-end gateway extends a smart contract for the sub-channel, and the smart contract is only applicable to the Peer node or the hierarchical front-end gateway related to the sub-channel.

2. The hierarchical front-end gateway according to claim 1, characterized in that: The hierarchical front-end gateway verifies the authenticity of the identity of the user accessing the client node and the integrity of the data submitted by the user.

3. The hierarchical front-end gateway according to claim 1, characterized in that: The hierarchical front-end gateway establishes a sub-channel with a peer node or other hierarchical front-end gateway, including: Sub-channels are established between different hierarchical front-end gateways of the same Peer node; Sub-channels are established between hierarchical front-end gateways under different peer nodes; Or a sub-channel is established between the hierarchical front-end gateway and other peer nodes.

4. A blockchain architecture, deployed in a point-to-point single-layer mesh structure, characterized in that: The blockchain architecture includes a first client node, a second client node and a Peer node; The Peer node corresponds to one or more of the first client nodes, and one or more of the second client nodes; The first client node is deployed with a hierarchical front gateway as described in any one of claims 1 to 3, and the second client node is not deployed with the hierarchical front gateway; A subchannel is established between the first client node and a peer node or other first client nodes.

5. The blockchain architecture according to claim 4, characterized in that: The blockchain architecture also includes an Orderer node, which sorts the transactions sent by the Peer node or the first client node.

6. The blockchain architecture according to claim 5, characterized in that: The Orderer node packages the transaction order into blocks and broadcasts the blocks to the hierarchical front-end gateways or Peer nodes in the sub-channel.

7. The blockchain architecture according to claim 6, characterized in that: The block is forwarded to the hierarchical front-end gateway through the connected Peer node, or is directly broadcast to the hierarchical front-end gateway through the cluster formed by the Orderer node.

8. The blockchain architecture according to claim 4, characterized in that: The first client node establishes different sub-channels with the Peer node or other first client nodes to deploy different services.

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