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https://github.com/aperturerobotics/bifrost

Cross-platform p2p daemon and library with pluggable transports and WebAssembly support.
https://github.com/aperturerobotics/bifrost

go nats peer-to-peer rpc webassembly websocket

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Cross-platform p2p daemon and library with pluggable transports and WebAssembly support.

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README 

        
![Bifrost](./doc/img/bifrost-logo.png)



## Introduction



**Bifrost** is a peer-to-peer communications engine with pluggable transports:



 - **Cross-platform**: supports web browsers, servers, desktop, mobile, ...

 - **Efficient**: multiplex many simultaneous streams over a single Link.

 - **Encryption**: identify, authenticate, and encrypt each Link between peers.

 - **Flexible**: use multiple transports, protocols, simultaneously.

 - **Meshing**: supports multi-hop routing to a desired target peer w/ circuits.

 - **PubSub**: publish/subscribe channels with pluggable implementations.

 - **Robust**: uses Quic for lossless links over lossy transports.



Bifrost uses [ControllerBus] controllers and directives to send any protocol

over any transport with extensive and flexible configuration.



[ControllerBus]: https://github.com/aperturerobotics/controllerbus



## Overview



[![Go Reference Widget]][Go Reference] [![Go Report Card Widget]][Go Report Card]



[Go Reference]: https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/aperturerobotics/bifrost

[Go Reference Widget]:https://pkg.go.dev/badge/github.com/aperturerobotics/bifrost.svg

[Go Report Card Widget]: https://goreportcard.com/badge/github.com/aperturerobotics/bifrost

[Go Report Card]: https://goreportcard.com/report/github.com/aperturerobotics/bifrost



Bifrost is designed around the following core concepts:



 - **Peer**: a routable process or device with a keypair.

 - **Transport**: a protocol which can create Links with other peers.

 - **Link**: a connection between two peers over a Transport.

 - **Stream**: channel of data between two Peer with a protocol type.

 - **RPC**: request/reply and bidirectional streaming remote calls.

 - **PubSub**: at-least-once delivery of messages to named topics.

 - **Signaling**: exchanging messages between peers via a relay server.



Integrates with networking, pubsub, and RPC libraries like [libp2p], [starpc],

[nats], and [pion webrtc].



[libp2p]: https://libp2p.io/

[nats]: https://nats.io

[starpc]: https://github.com/aperturerobotics/starpc

[pion webrtc]: https://github.com/pion/webrtc



The [network simulator], [testbed], and [in-proc transport] can be used to write

end-to-end tests as Go unit tests. The mock transports use identical code to the

real transports, and appear the same to the application code.



[network simulator]: ./sim

[testbed]: ./testbed

[in-proc transport]: ./transport/inproc



The [http] packages provide a http server and a mechanism for attaching http

handlers to the controller bus and using them to serve requests. There is also

an implementation of attaching and looking up http clients on the bus.



[http]: ./http



[EntityGraph] exposes the internal state representation of Bifrost to

visualizers and instrumentation via a graph-based inter-connected entity model.



[EntityGraph]: https://github.com/aperturerobotics/entitygraph



Configuring each component as an independent controller makes it easy to adapt

application code to different operating environments and protocols.



## Examples



[![Support Server](https://img.shields.io/discord/803825858599059487.svg?label=Discord&logo=Discord&colorB=7289da&style=for-the-badge)](https://discord.gg/KJutMESRsT)



Bifrost can be used as either a Go library or a command-line / daemon.



The [examples](./examples) directory contains yaml files to configure the

daemon, as well as "toys" which are self-contained Go program examples.



To install the CLI and daemon:



```bash

# Clone the repo and install.

git clone https://github.com/aperturerobotics/bifrost

cd ./bifrost/cmd/bifrost

go install -v



# Alternatively:

# Note: this currently fails on go >= 1.16 due to replace directives.

# See: https://github.com/golang/go/issues/44840

GO111MODULE=on go install -v github.com/aperturerobotics/bifrost/cmd/bifrost@master

```



Access help by adding the "-h" tag or running "bifrost help."



As a basic example, launch the daemon:



```

bifrost daemon \

  --write-config \

  --hold-open-links \

  --pubsub nats  \

  --api-listen :5110 \

  --udp-listen :5112

```



Check out the [http forwarding example](./examples/http-forwarding) for a complete demo.



### Daemon CLI



The Bifrost daemon is configured with a YAML ConfigSet and/or via the API.



```

NAME:

   bifrost daemon - run a bifrost daemon



OPTIONS:

   --hold-open-links         if set, hold open links without an inactivity timeout [$BIFROST_HOLD_OPEN_LINKS]

   --websocket-listen value  if set, will listen on address for websocket connections, ex :5111 [$BIFROST_WS_LISTEN]

   --udp-listen value        if set, will listen on address for udp connections, ex :5112 [$BIFROST_UDP_LISTEN]

   --establish-peers value   if set, request establish links to list of peer ids [$BIFROST_ESTABLISH_PEERS]

   --udp-peers value         list of peer-id@address known UDP peers [$BIFROST_UDP_PEERS]

   --websocket-peers value   list of peer-id@address known WebSocket peers [$BIFROST_WS_PEERS]

   --pubsub value            if set, will configure pubsub from options: [floodsub, nats] [$BIFROST_PUBSUB]

   --config value, -c value  path to configuration yaml file (default: "bifrost_daemon.yaml") [$BIFROST_CONFIG]

   --write-config            write the daemon config file on startup [$BIFROST_WRITE_CONFIG]

   --node-priv value         path to node private key, will be generated if doesn't exist (default: "bifrost_daemon.pem") [$BIFROST_NODE_PRIV]

   --api-listen value        if set, will listen on address for API connections, ex :5110 (default: none) [$BIFROST_API_LISTEN]

   --prof-listen value       if set, debug profiler will be hosted on the port, ex :8080 [$BIFROST_PROF_LISTEN]

```



These CLI flags are provided for convenience to quickly configure a daemon, and

the resulting config can be written to a file with `--write-config` for further

adjustments to be made. Note, however, that additional controllers are available

which are not yet exposed via these flags.



### Client CLI



Most Bifrost functionality is exposed on the client CLI and RPC API:



 - Mount a peer by loading a private key into the daemon.

 - Forward incoming streams with a protocol ID to a multiaddress

 - Proxy incoming connections to a listener to a remote peer

 - Open a stream with a remote peer and a given protocol ID

 - Accept a stream for a local peer with a given protocol ID



The client CLI has the following help output:



```

bifrost client command [command options] [arguments...]



COMMANDS:

   local-peers           returns local peer info

   identify              Private key will be loaded with a peer controller

   subscribe             Subscribe to a pubsub channel with a private key or mounted peer and publish base64 w/ newline delim from stdin.

   forward               Protocol ID will be forwarded to the target multiaddress

   accept                Single incoming stream with Protocol ID will be accepted

   dial                  Single outgoing stream with Protocol ID will be dialed

   listen                Listen on the multiaddress and forward the connection to a remote stream.

   controller-bus, cbus  ControllerBus system sub-commands.

```



With the above operations, all stream handling and interaction with the network

is exposed to the API and command line. Some examples:



```sh

  # Note: you can edit bifrost_daemon.yaml to change settings.

  # Once the daemon configuration exists, you can now just run:

  bifrost daemon



  # While the command is executing, the private key will be attached.

  bifrost client identify --peer-priv priv-key.pem



  # While the command is executing, a forwarding controller will be running.

  # Protocol ID will be forwarded to the target multiaddress

  # Handles HandleMountedStream directives by contacting the target.

  # HTTP can be easily proxied through an encrypted stream this way.

  bifrost client forward \

    --peer-id  \

    --protocol-id /x/myproto \

    --target /ip4/127.0.0.1/tcp/8000



  # While the command is executing, a proxying controller will be running.

  # Protocol ID will be proxied from the listen multiaddress to the target peer.

  # Calls OpenStream to build a stream from  to .

  # HTTP can be easily proxied through an encrypted stream this way.

  bifrost client listen \

    --peer-id  \

    --from-peer-id  \

    --protocol-id /x/myproto \

    --listen /ip4/127.0.0.1/tcp/8001



  # Wait for a stream to be opened to the mounted peer with the protocol ID /x/myproto

  # Standard output is the incoming data stream, standard input is the outgoing data stream.

  # Standard error is used for logging.

  bifrost client accept \

    --local-peer-id  \

    --protocol-id /x/myproto 



  # Establish a stream.

  # Standard output is the incoming data stream, standard input is the outgoing data stream.

  # Standard error is used for logging.

  bifrost client dial \

    --peer-id  \

    --local-peer-id  \

    --protocol-id /x/myproto

```



### YAML Configuration



An example of a ConfigSet in YAML format for the daemon: `bifrost_daemon.yaml`:



```yaml

# Start a UDP listener on port 5112.

my-udp:

  id: bifrost/udp

  config:

    listenAddr: :5112



# Use the floodsub driver for PubSub.

pubsub:

  id: bifrost/floodsub

  config: {}

```



### Example: forward HTTP traffic between peers



The following is a basic example of using the CLI to forward encrypted traffic

between a local port and a remote peer port, similar to SSH port forwarding:



```sh

  # note the peer id in the logs

  ./bifrost daemon \

            --write-config \

            --udp-listen :5000 \

            --node-priv daemon_node_priv_2.pem \

            --websocket-listen ":5111" \

            --prof-listen ":6201"



  # forward incoming connections to port 8000

  # example: "python3 -m http.server 8080"

  ./bifrost client forward \

            --protocol-id "test/protocol" \

            --target /ip4/127.0.0.1/tcp/8000



  # replace PEER-ID-HERE with the peer ID from the first daemon.

  # start a second daemon (in a new shell).

  ./bifrost daemon \

            --udp-listen :5001 \

            --udp-peers "[email protected]:5000" \

            --api-listen ":5112"



  # tell it to listen on port 8082 and forward to the other peer.

  # try browsing to http://localhost:8082

  ./bifrost client --dial-addr 127.0.0.1:5112 listen \

            --peer-id "PEER-ID-HERE" \

            --protocol-id test/protocol \

            --listen /ip4/127.0.0.1/tcp/8002

```



This example shows how to run two daemons with information on how to contact

each other, and then "tell" the second daemon to listen on port 8002 and forward

any incoming connections to the remote peer with the given peer ID. 



When someone connects to port 8002 the EstablishLinkWithPeer directive is added

and the UDP transport opens the connection with the peer (on-demand.) The stream

is then negotiated. The remote daemon uses HandleMountedStream which is handled

by the "forwarding" controller, which forwards the stream to localhost at 8000.



### Simulator and End-to-end Testing



```go

// g is the graph of peers and LANs.

g := graph.NewGraph()



// Add two peers to the graph.

p0 := addPeer(t, g)

p1 := addPeer(t, g)



// Connect them together with a LAN.

lan1 := graph.AddLAN(g)

lan1.AddPeer(g, p0)

lan1.AddPeer(g, p1)



// Run the simulator

sim := initSimulator(t, ctx, le, g)



// Test connecting p0 and p1 together!

simulate.TestConnectivity(ctx, p0, p1)

```



The simulator enables writing end-to-end tests of running controllers on peers

and validating that everything works with the full Bifrost stack in the loop. It

uses in-memory pipes to simulate local-area-network connections between peers.



Try the [example end-to-end test](./sim/tests/bifrost/basic_test.go) yourself:



```

go test -v -run Basic github.com/aperturerobotics/bifrost/sim/tests/bifrost

```



You will see the debug and quic logging followed by the success message:



```

INFO successful connectivity test: p0 <-> [lan1] <-> p1

```



## Concepts



### Transports and Links



A Link is a packet stream between two Peer. Links are created by Transports,

which are associated with a local private keypair.



Transports are responsible for handshaking their identity and providing stream

multiplexing, encryption, and ordering. The Bifrost codebase contains common

implementations for packet-based and stream-based transports, based primarily on

the [quic-go] implementation of the Quic UDP protocol.



[quic-go]: https://github.com/quic-go/quic-go



The HandleMountedStream directive contains incoming protocol and peer info. The

appropriate controller for the protocol responds to the directive and handles

the incoming stream. This decouples the transport layers from the protocols.



### PubSub



A PubSub is a controller that supports topic-based at-least-once delivery.



Nats and floodsub are currently supported as PubSub protocols.



## Developing



If using Go only, you don't need `yarn` or `Node.JS`.



Bifrost uses [Protobuf](https://protobuf.dev/) for message encoding.



You can re-generate the protobufs after changing any `.proto` file:



```

# stage the .proto file so yarn gen sees it

git add .

# install deps

yarn

# generate the protobufs

yarn gen

```



To run the test suite:



```

# Go tests only

go test ./...

# All tests

yarn test

# Lint

yarn lint

```



### Developing on MacOS



On MacOS, some homebrew packages are required for `yarn gen`:



```

brew install bash make coreutils gnu-sed findutils protobuf

brew link --overwrite protobuf

```



Add to your .bashrc or .zshrc:



```

export PATH="/opt/homebrew/opt/coreutils/libexec/gnubin:$PATH"

export PATH="/opt/homebrew/opt/gnu-sed/libexec/gnubin:$PATH"

export PATH="/opt/homebrew/opt/findutils/libexec/gnubin:$PATH"

export PATH="/opt/homebrew/opt/make/libexec/gnubin:$PATH"

```



## Support



Please open a [GitHub issue] with any questions / issues.



[GitHub issue]: https://github.com/aperturerobotics/bifrost/issues/new



... or feel free to reach out on [Matrix Chat] or [Discord].



[Discord]: https://discord.gg/KJutMESRsT

[Matrix Chat]: https://matrix.to/#/#aperturerobotics:matrix.org



## License



Apache 2.0