XRP-NDN Overlay: Improving the Communication Efficiency of Consensus-Validation based Blockchains with an NDN Overlay

Abstract

With the growing adoption of Distributed Ledger Technologies and the subsequent scaling of these networks, there is an inherent need for efficient and resilient communication used by the underlying consensus and replication mechanisms. While resilient and efficient communication is one of the main pillars of an efficient blockchain network as a whole, the Distributed Ledger Technology is still relatively new and the task of scaling these networks has come with its own challenges towards ensuring these goals. New content distribution concepts like Information Centric Networking, of which Named Data Networking is a worthy example, create new possibilities towards achieving this goal, through in-network caching or built-in native multicasting, for example. We present and evaluate XRP-NDN Overlay, a solution for increasing the communication efficiency for consensus-validation based blockchains like the XRP Ledger. We experiment by sending the XRP Ledger consensus messages over different Named Data Networking communication models and prove that our chosen model lowers the number of messages at node level to minimum necessary, while maintaining or improving blockchain performance by leveraging the possibilities offered by an overlay such as specific communication mechanisms.