Peer Discovery
When initialising a Waku node, it must connect with other peers to enable message sending, receiving, and retrieval. To achieve this, a discovery mechanism is employed to locate other peers in the network. This process is known as bootstrapping.
Once a connection is established, the node must actively seek out additional peers to have:
- Sufficient peers in the Relay mesh: The goal is to have at least 6 peers in the mesh. This ensures a robust network where messages can be efficiently relayed.
- Reserve peers for backup: It is essential to have a surplus of peers available as reserves. These reserves are backups when the current peers become overloaded or experience unexpected disconnections.
- Peers with specific capabilities: The node seeks out peers with specific capabilities, such as Store, Light Push, or Filter. This allows for targeted interactions and enhanced functionality based on the desired capabilities.
Waku supports multiple peer discovery mechanisms, such as: