Block synchronization method and system based on load balancing

Abstract

The present invention provides a method and system for block synchronization based on load balancing, including: a load balancer, a memory and a network interface. The memory is used to store the data information of the current node and other nodes recorded by the current node. The load balancer performs current limiting control and distribution control on the block synchronization requests between nodes according to the data information stored in the memory. The network interface is used for interconnection and request and response message communication between nodes. The present invention effectively allocates the data source of the block synchronization request to the data requesting node through the load balancer, protects the data source node from the impact of too many requests, and improves the stability of the blockchain network while ensuring the effective execution of block synchronization.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the field of blockchain technology, and in particular to a method and system for block synchronization based on load balancing. Background Art

[0002] Blockchain is a distributed system architecture with characteristics such as non-tamperability, so it has been increasingly used. In the blockchain system, multiple participating nodes share ledger data. The participating node types include consensus nodes and non-consensus nodes, and the ledger data is composed of chain blocks. As the data stored in the blockchain grows, when a new node joins the blockchain network or when the ledger data between nodes is not synchronized, that is, when the block height saved by some nodes lags behind other nodes, block synchronization will be initiated to ensure the effective advancement of blockchain consensus. The types of block synchronization include lightweight data synchronization, full data synchronization, fast synchronization, etc. At the same time, a large amount of block data needs to be synchronized, which will be a challenge to the computing resources of the block nodes and the blockchain network resources.

[0003] However, in the process of block synchronization, especially full data synchronization, a large amount of data broadcasting is often involved. If a node receives too many block synchronization requests, it may cause an impact on its network and computing resources, causing the node to crash and the block synchronization request to fail.

[0004] Patent document CN110569305A discloses a block synchronization method, which is applied to a blockchain node in a blockchain network, including: obtaining blockchain information of another blockchain node in the blockchain network, wherein the blockchain information includes a block height; when the block height of the one blockchain node is less than the block height of the other blockchain node, obtaining global status information associated with the current latest block in the other blockchain node; storing the global status information; and executing a consensus verification contract of the blockchain network based on the global status information.

[0005] However, patent document CN110569305A states that a certain blockchain node needs to process too many block synchronization requests, which causes the node's computing resources and network resources to be exhausted, and the node cannot be processed when it crashes, resulting in the failure of block synchronization requests.

[0006] Patent document CN109587271A discloses a main chain parallel chain architecture system and a block synchronization method, device and storage medium. The system includes: a main chain system, a load balancing system and a parallel chain system; the load balancing system is used to configure a fixed first access address and a first port for each main chain node of the main chain system, and the first access address and the first port are used for each parallel chain node of the parallel chain system to access each main chain node; the load balancing system is also used to automatically switch the first parallel chain node to an accessible second main chain node when the first main chain node accessed by the first parallel chain node cannot be accessed.

[0007] However, the load balancing system in patent document CN109587271A is implemented based on the blockchain architecture as a specified form - the main chain parallel chain architecture. However, the architecture of many blockchains is not based on this architecture, so the load balancing system proposed in the patent cannot be applied. At the same time, the load balancing system proposed in the patent is a strategy to switch to other nodes when a node goes down, and it does not solve the problem that one or more nodes may go down due to overload. Summary of the invention

[0008] In view of the defects in the prior art, an object of the present invention is to provide a method and system for block synchronization based on load balancing.

[0009] A block synchronization method based on load balancing provided by the present invention includes:

[0010] Step S1: Obtain data information of the current node and other nodes recorded by the current node;

[0011] Step S2: storing the data information in a memory;

[0012] Step S3: performing load balancing processing according to the data information, wherein the load balancing processing includes current limiting control of block synchronization requests from other nodes and allocation control of block synchronization requests to other nodes, thereby completing block synchronization;

[0013] The interconnection and request and response message communication between nodes are completed through the network interface.

[0014] Preferably, the data information includes throughput data and maximum load data of the current node and the peer node;

[0015] The throughput refers to the number of block synchronization requests successfully processed by the blockchain node per unit time;

[0016] The maximum load refers to the maximum number of block synchronization requests that a blockchain node can process per unit time.

[0017] Preferably, the current limiting control includes, when the current node receives a block synchronization request from another node, determining whether it can respond to the block synchronization request by calculating the number of processable block synchronization requests of the current node;

[0018] The number of block synchronization requests that can be processed by the current node is the difference between the maximum load and the throughput of the current node;

[0019] When the number of processable block synchronization requests of the current node is greater than zero, it means that the block synchronization request can be responded to; when the number of processable block synchronization requests of the current node is equal to zero, it means that the block synchronization request cannot be responded to.

[0020] Preferably, the allocation control includes selecting a node with the highest block height and the largest number of processable block synchronization requests as a requesting node based on the number of processable block synchronization requests of peer nodes maintained by the load balancer when the current node needs to send a block synchronization request, and sending the requesting node information to a network interface, and requesting block synchronization from other nodes through the network interface.

[0021] Preferably, the selection of the requesting node includes the following sub-steps:

[0022] Step S3.1: Load the peer node list from the memory;

[0023] Step S3.2: query the highest block height of each peer node in the peer node list in turn, and arrange the peer nodes from high to low according to the highest block height corresponding to the peer nodes;

[0024] Step S3.3: Take out nodes from the sorted peer node list one by one, and calculate the number of block synchronization requests that can be processed by the node. The calculation formula is as follows:

[0025] The number of block synchronization requests that can be processed = maximum load - throughput

[0026] If the highest block heights of the nodes are equal, the node with the larger number of block synchronization requests that can be processed is selected as the requesting node.

[0027] A block synchronization system based on load balancing provided according to the present invention includes: a load balancer, a memory and a network interface;

[0028] The memory is used to store data information of the current node and other nodes recorded by the current node;

[0029] The load balancer performs load balancing processing according to the data information, and the load balancing processing includes current limiting control of block synchronization requests from other nodes and distribution control when making block synchronization requests to other nodes, thereby completing block synchronization;

[0030] The network interface is used for interconnection and request and response message communication between nodes.

[0031] Preferably, the data information includes throughput data and maximum load data of the current node and the peer node;

[0032] The throughput refers to the number of block synchronization requests successfully processed by the blockchain node per unit time;

[0033] The maximum load refers to the maximum number of block synchronization requests that a blockchain node can process per unit time.

[0034] Preferably, the current limiting control includes, when the current node receives a block synchronization request from another node, determining whether it can respond to the block synchronization request by calculating the number of processable block synchronization requests of the current node;

[0035] The number of block synchronization requests that can be processed by the current node is the difference between the maximum load and the throughput of the current node;

[0036] When the number of processable block synchronization requests of the current node is greater than zero, it means that the block synchronization request can be responded to; when the number of processable block synchronization requests of the current node is equal to zero, it means that the block synchronization request cannot be responded to.

[0037] Preferably, the allocation control includes selecting a node with the highest block height and the largest number of processable block synchronization requests as a requesting node based on the number of processable block synchronization requests of peer nodes maintained by the load balancer when the current node needs to send a block synchronization request, and sending the requesting node information to a network interface, and requesting block synchronization from other nodes through the network interface.

[0038] Preferably, the selection of the request node includes the following submodules:

[0039] Module M3.1: Load the peer node list from the memory;

[0040] Module M3.2: query the highest block height of each peer node in the peer node list in turn, and arrange the peer nodes from high to low according to the highest block height corresponding to the peer nodes;

[0041] Module M3.3: Take out nodes from the sorted peer node list one by one, and calculate the number of block synchronization requests that can be processed by the node. The calculation formula is as follows:

[0042] The number of block synchronization requests that can be processed = maximum load - throughput

[0043] If the highest block heights of the nodes are equal, the node with the larger number of block synchronization requests that can be processed is selected as the requesting node.

[0044] Compared with the prior art, the present invention has the following beneficial effects:

[0045] 1. The present invention effectively allocates the data source of the block synchronization request to the data requesting node through a load balancer, protects the data source node from the impact of excessive requests, and improves the stability of the blockchain network while ensuring the effective execution of block synchronization.

[0046] 2. The present invention can achieve flow limiting and distribution of block synchronization requests through the load balancer module, wherein the flow limiting of block synchronization requests ensures that the block synchronization requests from other nodes will not exceed the processing capacity of the current blockchain node, and the distribution of block synchronization requests ensures that the block synchronization requests issued by this node are as far as possible within the processing capacity of the peer node and can be responded to by the peer node.

[0047] 3. The implementation of the load balancing function of the present invention is not limited to the architectural form of the blockchain. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0048] Other features, objects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the detailed description of non-limiting embodiments made with reference to the following drawings:

[0049] Figure 1 Schematic diagram of the network topology based on blockchain.

[0050] Figure 2 It is a schematic diagram of the system framework composition of the present invention.

[0051] Figure 3 The figure is a schematic diagram of a load balancing process for sending block synchronization requests to other nodes in the present invention.

[0052] Figure 4 The figure is a schematic diagram of the load balancing process of receiving block synchronization requests from other nodes in the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0053] The present invention is described in detail below in conjunction with specific embodiments. The following embodiments will help those skilled in the art to further understand the present invention, but are not intended to limit the present invention in any form. It should be noted that, for those of ordinary skill in the art, several changes and improvements can also be made without departing from the concept of the present invention. These all belong to the protection scope of the present invention.

[0054] A distributed blockchain network topology, such as Figure 1As shown, in the blockchain network, each node is a peer node, the nodes are interconnected directly or indirectly, and the transmission of block synchronization data is completed through these connections between nodes.

[0055] According to a block synchronization method based on load balancing provided by the present invention, Figures 2 to 4 As shown, including:

[0056] Step S1: Get the data information of the current node and other nodes recorded by the current node. The data information includes the throughput data and maximum load data of the current node and the peer node. The throughput refers to the number of block synchronization requests successfully processed by the blockchain node per unit time, and the maximum load refers to the maximum number of block synchronization requests that the blockchain node can process per unit time. Among them, the method of obtaining the node throughput and maximum load data includes but is not limited to querying by sending a request to the corresponding node. Specifically, when network resources are relatively abundant, before each block synchronization request needs to be sent, a query request for throughput and maximum load data can be sent to the peer node, and the peer node responds to its current node throughput and maximum load data, and then the current node performs load balancing according to the data responded by the peer node. When network resources are not abundant, unnecessary request sending should be avoided as much as possible. Therefore, the current node only sends a request once to query the throughput and maximum load data of the peer node. Subsequently, the current node records and maintains the throughput of the peer node serving the current node. In other words, this throughput can be understood as the communication volume per unit time between the peer node and the current node, rather than the communication volume per unit time between the peer node and all other nodes, thereby reducing the number of queries.

[0057] Step S2: storing the data information in a memory. The memory is used to store and read data, including a peer node list, node throughput, maximum load, etc.

[0058] Step S3: Perform load balancing processing according to the data information, and the load balancing processing includes current limiting control of block synchronization requests from other nodes and distribution control when block synchronization requests are made to other nodes, thereby completing block synchronization. In other words, the load balancer is a load balancing strategy calculation module. When the current node needs to send a block synchronization request to other nodes or receives a block synchronization request from other nodes from the network interface, the module will be triggered to start the load balancing strategy calculation. The interconnection and request and response message communication between nodes are completed through the network interface. When the node receives the message, the network interface further parses the message content and passes it to the corresponding message processing unit. When the node sends a message, the network interface further encapsulates the message and sends it to the peer node.

[0059] Current limiting control includes when the current node receives a block synchronization request from other nodes, such as Figure 4 As shown, by calculating the number of block synchronization requests that the current node can process, it is determined whether the block synchronization request can be responded to. When the number of block synchronization requests that the current node can process is greater than zero, it means that the block synchronization request can be responded to; when the number of block synchronization requests that the current node can process is equal to zero, it means that the block synchronization request cannot be responded to. The number of block synchronization requests that the current node can process is the difference between the maximum load and the throughput of the current node.

[0060] Specifically, first, the network receives block synchronization requests from other nodes, and the load balancer decides whether to respond to the request and reads the maximum load and throughput of the current node from the memory. Then, the number of block synchronization requests that can be processed by the current node is calculated based on the maximum load and throughput of the current node, and whether the number of block synchronization requests that can be processed by the current node is greater than zero. If so, it means that the current node still has resources to process block synchronization requests, and then continue to process block synchronization requests and further transmit the request to the business processing module of the node; if not, it means that there are no sufficient resources to process block synchronization requests, and then discard the request without responding.

[0061] Allocation control includes when the current node needs to send a block synchronization request, such as Figure 3 As shown, according to the number of processable block synchronization requests of the peer nodes maintained by the load balancer, the node with the highest block height and the largest number of processable block synchronization requests is selected as the requesting node, and the requesting node information is sent to the network interface, and block synchronization is requested from other nodes through the network interface.

[0062] Specifically, first, the load balancer loads its peer node list, as well as the throughput and maximum load of the peer nodes from the memory. Then, the load balancer sorts the peer nodes it maintains in order from high to low according to the number of block synchronization requests that can be processed, and queries the highest block height of the peer node in turn. Next, the nodes are taken out from the sorted peer node list in turn, and the node with the highest block height and the largest number of block synchronization requests that can be processed is selected as the request node. If the highest block heights of the nodes are equal, the node with a larger number of block synchronization requests that can be processed is selected as the request node. Finally, the node information is sent to the network interface, and the network interface is responsible for sending the request. Among them, the number of block synchronization requests that can be processed by the node is calculated to be equal to the difference between the maximum load and the throughput.

[0063] In a variation of the present invention, the variation is that nodes are dynamically selected by adaptive adjustment without obtaining data such as throughput of peer nodes. Specifically, a blockchain node randomly selects a peer node to send a certain number of block synchronization requests. If a response message from the peer node is received, the node can incrementally send request messages to the peer node again next time; if a response message from some peer nodes is received, the number of request messages sent to the peer node by the node next time will be reduced; if a response message from the peer node is not received, the node will no longer send request messages to the peer node within a certain period of time. In other words, a blockchain node randomly selects a peer node to send a block synchronization request. If a response from the peer node is received, it means that the peer node is available, and the node will still send a request to the peer node next time; if a response from the peer node is not received, it means that the peer node is unavailable, and the node will no longer send block synchronization requests to the peer node within a certain period of time, but will send requests to other peer nodes except the peer node.

[0064] The present invention aims to improve the effectiveness and stability of the blockchain network by weighing the load of the block nodes during the block synchronization process and performing load balancing on the block synchronization requests. While ensuring the effective execution of block synchronization, the stability of the blockchain network is improved.

[0065] Further, the present invention is described as follows by way of example:

[0066] Assume that there is a stable blockchain that provides blockchain evidence storage services. The network topology of the blockchain is as follows: Figure 1 As shown in the figure, each node in the topology stores the same evidence data, thus ensuring that the evidence data cannot be tampered with. Now a new node wants to join the network to obtain evidence services, but the node does not have the existing evidence data of the blockchain. These evidence data exist in the form of blocks. Therefore, the new node needs to make a block synchronization request to the existing nodes in the blockchain network.

[0067] First, the new node adopts the strategy mentioned above, and by measuring the block height of the peer node and the number of block synchronization requests that can be processed, selects a node with the highest block height and the largest number of block synchronization requests that can be processed as the destination node, and sends the block synchronization request. Secondly, when the peer node receives the block synchronization request, it calculates whether it has enough resources to respond to the block synchronization request based on its own throughput and maximum load. If so, it sends a block synchronization response message to the new node; if not, it rejects the block synchronization request of the new node.

[0068] The present invention also provides a block synchronization system based on load balancing. Those skilled in the art can implement the block synchronization system based on load balancing by executing the step flow of the block synchronization method based on load balancing, that is, the block synchronization method based on load balancing can be understood as a preferred implementation of the block synchronization system based on load balancing.

[0069] According to a block synchronization system based on load balancing provided by the present invention, Figure 2 As shown, the figure omits other component modules of the node device, and only focuses on showing the modules related to the load-balancing-based block synchronization described in this patent, including a load balancer, a memory, and a network interface.

[0070] The memory is used to store the data information of the current node and other nodes recorded by the current node, which will be used by the load balancer for load balancing strategy decision-making. The data information includes the throughput data and maximum load data of the current node and the peer node. The throughput refers to the number of block synchronization requests successfully processed by the blockchain node per unit time. The maximum load refers to the maximum number of block synchronization requests that the blockchain node can process per unit time.

[0071] The load balancer performs load balancing processing according to the data information, and the load balancing processing includes current limiting control of block synchronization requests from other nodes and distribution control when block synchronization requests are made to other nodes, thereby completing block synchronization. In other words, the load balancer is a load balancing strategy calculation module, which is triggered to start the load balancing strategy calculation when the current node needs to send a block synchronization request to other nodes or receives a block synchronization request from other nodes from the network interface. It includes current limiting control of block synchronization requests from other nodes, and is also used to select a peer node for this node to send a request when a block synchronization request needs to be initiated to other nodes.

[0072] Specifically, the current limiting control includes determining whether it is able to respond to a block synchronization request by calculating the number of processable block synchronization requests of the current node when the current node receives a block synchronization request from another node. The number of processable block synchronization requests of the current node is the difference between the maximum load and throughput of the current node. When the number of processable block synchronization requests of the current node is greater than zero, it indicates that the block synchronization request can be responded to; when the number of processable block synchronization requests of the current node is equal to zero, it indicates that the block synchronization request cannot be responded to.

[0073] The allocation control includes when the current node needs to send a block synchronization request, according to the number of processable block synchronization requests of the peer nodes maintained by the load balancer, selecting the node with the highest block height and the largest number of processable block synchronization requests as the request node, and sending the request node information to the network interface, and requesting block synchronization from other nodes through the network interface. The selection of the request node includes the following sub-modules: Module M3.1: Loading the peer node list from the memory. Module M3.2: Query the highest block height of each peer node in the peer node list in turn, and arrange the peer nodes from high to low according to the highest block height corresponding to the peer nodes. Module M3.3: Take out the nodes from the sorted peer node list in turn, and calculate the number of processable block synchronization requests of the node. The calculation formula is as follows:

[0074] The number of block synchronization requests that can be processed = maximum load - throughput

[0075] If the highest block heights of the nodes are equal, the node with the larger number of block synchronization requests that can be processed is selected as the requesting node.

[0076] The network interface is used for interconnection and request and response message communication between nodes.

[0077] Those skilled in the art know that, in addition to implementing the system, device and its various modules provided by the present invention in a purely computer-readable program code, it is entirely possible to implement the same program in the form of logic gates, switches, application-specific integrated circuits, programmable logic controllers and embedded microcontrollers by logically programming the method steps. Therefore, the system, device and its various modules provided by the present invention can be considered as a hardware component, and the modules included therein for implementing various programs can also be considered as structures within the hardware component; the modules for implementing various functions can also be considered as both software programs for implementing the method and structures within the hardware component.

[0078] The above describes the specific embodiments of the present invention. It should be understood that the present invention is not limited to the above specific embodiments, and those skilled in the art can make various changes or modifications within the scope of the claims, which does not affect the essence of the present invention. In the absence of conflict, the embodiments of the present application and the features in the embodiments can be combined with each other arbitrarily.

Claims

1. A block synchronization method based on load balancing, characterized in that: include: Step S1: Obtain data information of the current node and other nodes recorded by the current node; Step S2: storing the data information in a memory; Step S3: performing load balancing processing according to the data information, wherein the load balancing processing includes current limiting control of block synchronization requests from other nodes and allocation control of block synchronization requests to other nodes, thereby completing block synchronization; The interconnection and request and response message communication between nodes are completed through the network interface; The data information includes throughput data and maximum load data of the current node and the peer node; The throughput refers to the number of block synchronization requests successfully processed by the blockchain node per unit time; The maximum load refers to the maximum number of block synchronization requests that a blockchain node can process per unit time; The allocation control includes when the current node needs to send a block synchronization request, according to the number of processable block synchronization requests of the peer nodes maintained by the load balancer, selecting the node with the highest block height and the largest number of processable block synchronization requests as the requesting node, and sending the requesting node information to the network interface, and requesting block synchronization from other nodes through the network interface.

2. The block synchronization method based on load balancing according to claim 1 is characterized in that: The current limiting control includes, when the current node receives a block synchronization request from another node, determining whether it can respond to the block synchronization request by calculating the number of block synchronization requests that the current node can process; The number of block synchronization requests that can be processed by the current node is the difference between the maximum load and the throughput of the current node; When the number of block synchronization requests that can be processed by the current node is greater than zero, it means that the block synchronization request can be responded to; When the number of block synchronization requests that can be processed by the current node is equal to zero, it means that the block synchronization request cannot be responded to.

3. The block synchronization method based on load balancing according to claim 1, characterized in that: The selection of the requesting node includes the following sub-steps: Step S3.1: Load the peer node list from the memory; Step S3.2: query the highest block height of each peer node in the peer node list in turn, and arrange the peer nodes from high to low according to the highest block height corresponding to the peer nodes; Step S3.3: Take out nodes from the sorted peer node list one by one, and calculate the number of block synchronization requests that can be processed by the node. The calculation formula is as follows: The number of block synchronization requests that can be processed = maximum load - throughput If the highest block heights of the nodes are equal, the node with the larger number of block synchronization requests that can be processed is selected as the requesting node.

4. A block synchronization system based on load balancing, characterized in that: include: load balancers, storage, and network interfaces; The memory is used to store data information of the current node and other nodes recorded by the current node; The load balancer performs load balancing processing according to the data information, and the load balancing processing includes current limiting control of block synchronization requests from other nodes and distribution control when making block synchronization requests to other nodes, thereby completing block synchronization; The network interface is used for interconnection and communication of request and response messages between nodes; The data information includes throughput data and maximum load data of the current node and the peer node; The throughput refers to the number of block synchronization requests successfully processed by the blockchain node per unit time; The maximum load refers to the maximum number of block synchronization requests that a blockchain node can process per unit time; The allocation control includes when the current node needs to send a block synchronization request, according to the number of processable block synchronization requests of the peer nodes maintained by the load balancer, selecting the node with the highest block height and the largest number of processable block synchronization requests as the requesting node, and sending the requesting node information to the network interface, and requesting block synchronization from other nodes through the network interface.

5. The block synchronization system based on load balancing according to claim 4, characterized in that: The current limiting control includes, when the current node receives a block synchronization request from another node, determining whether it can respond to the block synchronization request by calculating the number of block synchronization requests that the current node can process; The number of block synchronization requests that can be processed by the current node is the difference between the maximum load and the throughput of the current node; When the number of block synchronization requests that can be processed by the current node is greater than zero, it means that the block synchronization request can be responded to; When the number of block synchronization requests that can be processed by the current node is equal to zero, it means that the block synchronization request cannot be responded to.

6. The block synchronization system based on load balancing according to claim 4, characterized in that: The selection of the request node includes the following submodules: Module M3.1: Load the peer node list from the memory; Module M3.2: query the highest block height of each peer node in the peer node list in turn, and arrange the peer nodes from high to low according to the highest block height corresponding to the peer nodes; Module M3.3: Take out nodes from the sorted peer node list one by one, and calculate the number of block synchronization requests that can be processed by the node. The calculation formula is as follows: The number of block synchronization requests that can be processed = maximum load - throughput If the highest block heights of the nodes are equal, the node with the larger number of block synchronization requests that can be processed is selected as the requesting node.

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