Description

Currently, py-libp2p lacks a Random Walk mechanism for its DHT implementation. Random Walk is an essential component of peer-to-peer discovery in libp2p networks. It periodically performs lookups for random peer IDs to populate and refresh the routing table, improving the overall connectivity, resilience, and robustness of the network.

Why is this important?

• In decentralized networks, peers join and leave frequently (network churn). Without periodic exploration, the routing table can become stale, leading to poor peer discovery and reduced DHT performance.
• Random Walk ensures the DHT continues to explore beyond immediate neighbors, discovering new peers over time, improving query success rates.
• This module is implemented in Go-libp2p and JS-libp2p, but is currently missing in Python. Adding this will bring py-libp2p closer to feature parity with other libp2p implementations.

Intended Behavior:

• A background process periodically generates random peer IDs and performs FIND_NODE queries.

• These lookups refresh the routing table by discovering new peers and validating existing ones.

• Configurable options such as:

  • Walk interval: How frequently random walks occur.
  • Concurrency: Number of walks to run in parallel.
  • Timeouts: Max time for each lookup.

This module will significantly improve the health of the DHT and ensure better peer discovery in long-running networks.

Motivation

The current DHT implementation in py-libp2p relies primarily on on-demand lookups (triggered by application queries or bootstrapping), which means the routing table may become stale over time in a dynamic network.

In real-world peer-to-peer environments:

• Network churn is constant — peers frequently join and leave, which can degrade routing performance.
• Without proactive discovery, the DHT risks becoming fragmented, resulting in higher lookup failures and increased latency when resolving queries.

By implementing a Random Walk module:

• The system can proactively refresh the routing table, discovering new peers even when no user-initiated queries are happening.
• It aligns py-libp2p with other mature libp2p implementations (Go & JS), enabling better cross-language interoperability.
• It improves the resilience of decentralized applications built on py-libp2p, especially those relying on long-lived nodes (e.g., blockchain validators, distributed storage systems).

This enhancement is critical for maintaining a healthy, well-connected DHT and ensuring that applications using py-libp2p can scale reliably in real-world, large, and dynamic networks.

Current Implementation

Currently, py-libp2p relies on bootstrap peers and on-demand DHT lookups to populate the routing table.

• There is no background peer discovery mechanism running periodically to refresh or expand the routing table.
• Once a node has connected to its bootstrap peers and performed a few lookups, its view of the network remains largely static, unless new queries are triggered by the application.
• This can result in the routing table becoming stale over time, especially in networks with high churn, where peers frequently join and leave.

In comparison, Go-libp2p and JS-libp2p use a Random Walk mechanism to continuously explore the network, keeping their routing tables fresh and improving overall DHT performance.

Are you planning to do it yourself in a pull request ?

Maybe