Selective Network Coding for Blockchain Transaction Bottlenecks
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing blockchain networks face limitations in transaction propagation speed and scalability, particularly in high-volume transaction scenarios, such as credit card payments, due to the bottlenecks created by nodes validating and relaying transactions to peer nodes, which results in inefficiencies and delays.
Innovation Solution
Implementing selective network coding at nodes identified as bottlenecks to combine transactions into a single message using local and global encoding vectors, allowing efficient propagation without the need for universal network coding across all nodes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Speed
If every node validates and relays transactions to all peer nodes individually, then transaction propagation follows the standard protocol validation process, but the propagation speed is slow and the network cannot handle high-volume transactions
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple transactions into a single network-coded message at bottleneck nodes. Instead of transmitting each transaction separately to multiple peer nodes, the bottleneck node encodes a group of transactions into one compact message using network coding techniques, thereby merging multiple transmission tasks into a single operation that propagates faster through the network.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces bottleneck nodes as intermediary entities that perform selective network coding on transactions before forwarding them to peer nodes. These intermediary nodes aggregate and encode transactions from multiple sources into consolidated messages, acting as mediators that reduce the overall transmission burden on the network and improve propagation speed.
2Speed
If network coding is applied at all nodes, then transaction propagation speed improves, but the device complexity and computational overhead increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies network coding selectively only at bottleneck nodes rather than uniformly at all nodes in the network. Bottleneck nodes are identified based on their network position and transaction flow patterns, and only these specific nodes perform the computationally intensive encoding operations. Other nodes continue to operate with standard validation and relay protocols, thereby localizing the complexity to where it is most needed.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements partial network coding by applying the encoding technique only to a subset of transactions passing through bottleneck nodes, rather than encoding all transactions at all nodes. This partial application of network coding achieves speed improvements while avoiding the excessive computational overhead that would result from universal implementation across the entire network.
3Reliability
If transactions are sent individually to each peer node, then each node receives complete transaction data for validation, but the transmission time and network bandwidth consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple individual transaction transmissions into a single network-coded message that contains encoded information from multiple transactions. Peer nodes receiving these messages can decode and reconstruct the original transactions, thereby obtaining complete transaction data through a single transmission event rather than multiple separate transmissions, which reduces transmission delay while maintaining data completeness.
Data Source
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AI summary
Methods and devices for propagating transactions in a network of nodes, each node having one or more connections to other nodes. The method includes determining that one of the nodes is a bottleneck for propagation of transactions; receiving, over a first time period, a plurality of new transactions from one or more first nodes in the network of nodes; combining the plurality of new transactions using network coding and a local encoding vector to generate a message; and sending the message and a global encoding vector to one or more second nodes in the network of nodes instead of sending the plurality of new transactions to the one or more second nodes. The network may be a blockchain network.