Merge bitcoin/bitcoin#25880: p2p: Make stalling timeout adaptive during IBD

39b93649c4 test: add functional test for IBD stalling logic (Martin Zumsande)
0565951f34 p2p: Make block stalling timeout adaptive (Martin Zumsande)

Pull request description:

  During IBD, there is the following stalling mechanism if we can't proceed with assigning blocks from a 1024 lookahead window because all of these blocks are either already downloaded or in-flight: We'll mark the peer from which we expect the current block that would allow us to advance our tip (and thereby move the 1024 window ahead) as a possible staller. We then give this peer 2 more seconds to deliver a block (`BLOCK_STALLING_TIMEOUT`) and if it doesn't, disconnect it and assign the critical block we need to another peer.

  Now the problem is that this second peer is immediately marked as a potential staller using the same mechanism and given 2 seconds as well - if our own connection is so slow that it simply takes us more than 2 seconds to download this block, that peer will also be disconnected (and so on...), leading to repeated disconnections and no progress in IBD. This has been described in #9213, and I have observed this when doing IBD  on slower connections or with Tor - sometimes there would be several minutes without progress, where all we did was disconnect peers and find new ones.

  The `2s` stalling timeout was introduced in #4468, when blocks weren't full and before Segwit increased the maximum possible physical size of blocks - so I think it made a lot of sense back then.
  But it would be good to revisit this timeout now.

  This PR makes the timout adaptive (idea by sipa):
  If we disconnect a peer for stalling, we now double the timeout for the next peer (up to a maximum of 64s). If we connect a block, we half it again up to the old value of 2 seconds. That way, peers that are comparatively slower will still get disconnected, but long phases of disconnecting all peers shouldn't happen anymore.

  Fixes #9213

ACKs for top commit:
  achow101:
    ACK 39b93649c4
  RandyMcMillan:
    Strong Concept ACK 39b93649c4
  vasild:
    ACK 39b93649c4
  naumenkogs:
    ACK 39b93649c4

Tree-SHA512: 85bc57093b2fb1d28d7409ed8df5a91543909405907bc129de7c6285d0810dd79bc05219e4d5aefcb55c85512b0ad5bed43a4114a17e46c35b9a3f9a983d5754

src/net_processing.cpp

@@ -113,8 +113,11 @@ static constexpr auto GETDATA_TX_INTERVAL{60s};
 static const unsigned int MAX_GETDATA_SZ = 1000;
 /** Number of blocks that can be requested at any given time from a single peer. */
 static const int MAX_BLOCKS_IN_TRANSIT_PER_PEER = 16;
-/** Time during which a peer must stall block download progress before being disconnected. */
-static constexpr auto BLOCK_STALLING_TIMEOUT{2s};
+/** Default time during which a peer must stall block download progress before being disconnected.
+ * the actual timeout is increased temporarily if peers are disconnected for hitting the timeout */
+static constexpr auto BLOCK_STALLING_TIMEOUT_DEFAULT{2s};
+/** Maximum timeout for stalling block download. */
+static constexpr auto BLOCK_STALLING_TIMEOUT_MAX{64s};
 /** Number of headers sent in one getheaders result. We rely on the assumption that if a peer sends
  *  less than this number, we reached its tip. Changing this value is a protocol upgrade. */
 static const unsigned int MAX_HEADERS_RESULTS = 2000;
@@ -774,6 +777,9 @@ private:
     /** Number of preferable block download peers. */
     int m_num_preferred_download_peers GUARDED_BY(cs_main){0};
 
+    /** Stalling timeout for blocks in IBD */
+    std::atomic<std::chrono::seconds> m_block_stalling_timeout{BLOCK_STALLING_TIMEOUT_DEFAULT};
+
     bool AlreadyHaveTx(const GenTxid& gtxid)
         EXCLUSIVE_LOCKS_REQUIRED(cs_main, !m_recent_confirmed_transactions_mutex);
 
@@ -1812,7 +1818,8 @@ void PeerManagerImpl::StartScheduledTasks(CScheduler& scheduler)
 /**
  * Evict orphan txn pool entries based on a newly connected
  * block, remember the recently confirmed transactions, and delete tracked
- * announcements for them. Also save the time of the last tip update.
+ * announcements for them. Also save the time of the last tip update and
+ * possibly reduce dynamic block stalling timeout.
  */
 void PeerManagerImpl::BlockConnected(const std::shared_ptr<const CBlock>& pblock, const CBlockIndex* pindex)
 {
@@ -1835,6 +1842,16 @@ void PeerManagerImpl::BlockConnected(const std::shared_ptr<const CBlock>& pblock
             m_txrequest.ForgetTxHash(ptx->GetWitnessHash());
         }
     }
+
+    // In case the dynamic timeout was doubled once or more, reduce it slowly back to its default value
+    auto stalling_timeout = m_block_stalling_timeout.load();
+    Assume(stalling_timeout >= BLOCK_STALLING_TIMEOUT_DEFAULT);
+    if (stalling_timeout != BLOCK_STALLING_TIMEOUT_DEFAULT) {
+        const auto new_timeout = std::max(std::chrono::duration_cast<std::chrono::seconds>(stalling_timeout * 0.85), BLOCK_STALLING_TIMEOUT_DEFAULT);
+        if (m_block_stalling_timeout.compare_exchange_strong(stalling_timeout, new_timeout)) {
+            LogPrint(BCLog::NET, "Decreased stalling timeout to %d seconds\n", new_timeout.count());
+        }
+    }
 }
 
 void PeerManagerImpl::BlockDisconnected(const std::shared_ptr<const CBlock> &block, const CBlockIndex* pindex)
@@ -5713,12 +5730,19 @@ bool PeerManagerImpl::SendMessages(CNode* pto)
             m_connman.PushMessage(pto, msgMaker.Make(NetMsgType::INV, vInv));
 
         // Detect whether we're stalling
-        if (state.m_stalling_since.count() && state.m_stalling_since < current_time - BLOCK_STALLING_TIMEOUT) {
+        auto stalling_timeout = m_block_stalling_timeout.load();
+        if (state.m_stalling_since.count() && state.m_stalling_since < current_time - stalling_timeout) {
             // Stalling only triggers when the block download window cannot move. During normal steady state,
             // the download window should be much larger than the to-be-downloaded set of blocks, so disconnection
             // should only happen during initial block download.
             LogPrintf("Peer=%d is stalling block download, disconnecting\n", pto->GetId());
             pto->fDisconnect = true;
+            // Increase timeout for the next peer so that we don't disconnect multiple peers if our own
+            // bandwidth is insufficient.
+            const auto new_timeout = std::min(2 * stalling_timeout, BLOCK_STALLING_TIMEOUT_MAX);
+            if (stalling_timeout != new_timeout && m_block_stalling_timeout.compare_exchange_strong(stalling_timeout, new_timeout)) {
+                LogPrint(BCLog::NET, "Increased stalling timeout temporarily to %d seconds\n", m_block_stalling_timeout.load().count());
+            }
             return true;
         }
         // In case there is a block that has been in flight from this peer for block_interval * (1 + 0.5 * N)

test/functional/p2p_ibd_stalling.py

@@ -0,0 +1,164 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+# Copyright (c) 2022- The Bitcoin Core developers
+# Distributed under the MIT software license, see the accompanying
+# file COPYING or http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php.
+"""
+Test stalling logic during IBD
+"""
+
+import time
+
+from test_framework.blocktools import (
+        create_block,
+        create_coinbase
+)
+from test_framework.messages import (
+        MSG_BLOCK,
+        MSG_TYPE_MASK,
+)
+from test_framework.p2p import (
+        CBlockHeader,
+        msg_block,
+        msg_headers,
+        P2PDataStore,
+)
+from test_framework.test_framework import BitcoinTestFramework
+from test_framework.util import (
+        assert_equal,
+)
+
+
+class P2PStaller(P2PDataStore):
+    def __init__(self, stall_block):
+        self.stall_block = stall_block
+        super().__init__()
+
+    def on_getdata(self, message):
+        for inv in message.inv:
+            self.getdata_requests.append(inv.hash)
+            if (inv.type & MSG_TYPE_MASK) == MSG_BLOCK:
+                if (inv.hash != self.stall_block):
+                    self.send_message(msg_block(self.block_store[inv.hash]))
+
+    def on_getheaders(self, message):
+        pass
+
+
+class P2PIBDStallingTest(BitcoinTestFramework):
+    def set_test_params(self):
+        self.setup_clean_chain = True
+        self.num_nodes = 1
+
+    def run_test(self):
+        NUM_BLOCKS = 1025
+        NUM_PEERS = 4
+        node = self.nodes[0]
+        tip = int(node.getbestblockhash(), 16)
+        blocks = []
+        height = 1
+        block_time = node.getblock(node.getbestblockhash())['time'] + 1
+        self.log.info("Prepare blocks without sending them to the node")
+        block_dict = {}
+        for _ in range(NUM_BLOCKS):
+            blocks.append(create_block(tip, create_coinbase(height), block_time))
+            blocks[-1].solve()
+            tip = blocks[-1].sha256
+            block_time += 1
+            height += 1
+            block_dict[blocks[-1].sha256] = blocks[-1]
+        stall_block = blocks[0].sha256
+
+        headers_message = msg_headers()
+        headers_message.headers = [CBlockHeader(b) for b in blocks[:NUM_BLOCKS-1]]
+        peers = []
+
+        self.log.info("Check that a staller does not get disconnected if the 1024 block lookahead buffer is filled")
+        for id in range(NUM_PEERS):
+            peers.append(node.add_outbound_p2p_connection(P2PStaller(stall_block), p2p_idx=id, connection_type="outbound-full-relay"))
+            peers[-1].block_store = block_dict
+            peers[-1].send_message(headers_message)
+
+        # Need to wait until 1023 blocks are received - the magic total bytes number is a workaround in lack of an rpc
+        # returning the number of downloaded (but not connected) blocks.
+        self.wait_until(lambda: self.total_bytes_recv_for_blocks() == 172761)
+
+        self.all_sync_send_with_ping(peers)
+        # If there was a peer marked for stalling, it would get disconnected
+        self.mocktime = int(time.time()) + 3
+        node.setmocktime(self.mocktime)
+        self.all_sync_send_with_ping(peers)
+        assert_equal(node.num_test_p2p_connections(), NUM_PEERS)
+
+        self.log.info("Check that increasing the window beyond 1024 blocks triggers stalling logic")
+        headers_message.headers = [CBlockHeader(b) for b in blocks]
+        with node.assert_debug_log(expected_msgs=['Stall started']):
+            for p in peers:
+                p.send_message(headers_message)
+            self.all_sync_send_with_ping(peers)
+
+        self.log.info("Check that the stalling peer is disconnected after 2 seconds")
+        self.mocktime += 3
+        node.setmocktime(self.mocktime)
+        peers[0].wait_for_disconnect()
+        assert_equal(node.num_test_p2p_connections(), NUM_PEERS - 1)
+        self.wait_until(lambda: self.is_block_requested(peers, stall_block))
+        # Make sure that SendMessages() is invoked, which assigns the missing block
+        # to another peer and starts the stalling logic for them
+        self.all_sync_send_with_ping(peers)
+
+        self.log.info("Check that the stalling timeout gets doubled to 4 seconds for the next staller")
+        # No disconnect after just 3 seconds
+        self.mocktime += 3
+        node.setmocktime(self.mocktime)
+        self.all_sync_send_with_ping(peers)
+        assert_equal(node.num_test_p2p_connections(), NUM_PEERS - 1)
+
+        self.mocktime += 2
+        node.setmocktime(self.mocktime)
+        self.wait_until(lambda: node.num_test_p2p_connections() == NUM_PEERS - 2)
+        self.wait_until(lambda: self.is_block_requested(peers, stall_block))
+        self.all_sync_send_with_ping(peers)
+
+        self.log.info("Check that the stalling timeout gets doubled to 8 seconds for the next staller")
+        # No disconnect after just 7 seconds
+        self.mocktime += 7
+        node.setmocktime(self.mocktime)
+        self.all_sync_send_with_ping(peers)
+        assert_equal(node.num_test_p2p_connections(), NUM_PEERS - 2)
+
+        self.mocktime += 2
+        node.setmocktime(self.mocktime)
+        self.wait_until(lambda: node.num_test_p2p_connections() == NUM_PEERS - 3)
+        self.wait_until(lambda: self.is_block_requested(peers, stall_block))
+        self.all_sync_send_with_ping(peers)
+
+        self.log.info("Provide the withheld block and check that stalling timeout gets reduced back to 2 seconds")
+        with node.assert_debug_log(expected_msgs=['Decreased stalling timeout to 2 seconds']):
+            for p in peers:
+                if p.is_connected and (stall_block in p.getdata_requests):
+                    p.send_message(msg_block(block_dict[stall_block]))
+
+        self.log.info("Check that all outstanding blocks get connected")
+        self.wait_until(lambda: node.getblockcount() == NUM_BLOCKS)
+
+    def total_bytes_recv_for_blocks(self):
+        total = 0
+        for info in self.nodes[0].getpeerinfo():
+            if ("block" in info["bytesrecv_per_msg"].keys()):
+                total += info["bytesrecv_per_msg"]["block"]
+        return total
+
+    def all_sync_send_with_ping(self, peers):
+        for p in peers:
+            if p.is_connected:
+                p.sync_send_with_ping()
+
+    def is_block_requested(self, peers, hash):
+        for p in peers:
+            if p.is_connected and (hash in p.getdata_requests):
+                return True
+        return False
+
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    P2PIBDStallingTest().main()

test/functional/test_runner.py

@@ -254,6 +254,7 @@ BASE_SCRIPTS = [
     'wallet_importprunedfunds.py --descriptors',
     'p2p_leak_tx.py',
     'p2p_eviction.py',
+    'p2p_ibd_stalling.py',
     'wallet_signmessagewithaddress.py',
     'rpc_signmessagewithprivkey.py',
     'rpc_generate.py',