Lessons Learned from a Bare-metal Evaluation of Erasure Coding Algorithms in P2P Networks

TL;DR

This paper discusses the lessons learned from setting up and conducting large-scale, controlled evaluations of erasure coding algorithms in a bare-metal environment with 1000 Ethereum Swarm peers, highlighting challenges and best practices.

Contribution

It provides insights into creating a reproducible, controlled testbed for evaluating erasure coding algorithms at scale in P2P networks.

Findings

Developed a large-scale bare-metal testbed with 1000 peers.

Identified key challenges in experimental software limitations.

Provided best practices for accurate network behavior measurement.

Abstract

We have built a bare-metal testbed in order to perform large-scale, reproducible evaluations of erasure coding algorithms. Our testbed supports at least 1000 Ethereum Swarm peers running on 30 machines. Running experimental evaluation is time-consuming and challenging. Researchers must consider the experimental software's limitations and artifacts. If not controlled, the network behavior may cause inaccurate measurements. This paper shares the lessons learned from a bare-metal evaluation of erasure coding algorithms and how to create a controlled-environment in a cluster consisting of 1000 Ethereum Swarm peers.