Comparative Performance Analysis of Underlying Network Topologies for Blockchain

Blockchain is a distributed ledger technology operating on top of the peer-to-peer (P2P) network, and the variety of Blockchain deployments have been observed in both public and private manners. In Blockchain, the information dissemination among Blockchain nodes relies on the one-to-all-the-others broadcast mechanism over the P2P network. The underlying network topology introduces a significant impact on the performance of information dissemination in the Blockchain P2P network as well as the effectiveness and stability of Blockchain operation as a consequence. When a private blockchain is deployed in a controlled environment, it is crucial to understand the effect of underlying network topology on Blockchain performance and operational effectiveness. This paper simulates various well-known network topologies, including Hypercube, Torus, Fat-Tree, and Scale-Free as an underlying network of the Blockchain, giving more focus on controlled environments such as Data Center Network (DCN). We comparatively evaluate the performance of each network topology based on both Blockchain and network aspects. The evaluation results show that Hypercube performs the best among the topologies being assessed, especially in information propagation delay and resilience against adverse situations.

I. Introduction

Propagation delay, throughput, and reachability of Blockchain message determine the performance and healthiness of Blockchain operations. One-to-all-others message propagation throughout the entire P2P network plays a vital role in supporting the Blockchain’s fundamental functionalities, such as adding a new transaction in the memory pool of miners and sending or receiving a new block among peers.