eth2.0-specs/specs/merge/p2p-interface.md

The Merge -- Networking

This document contains the networking specification for the Merge.

The specification of these changes continues in the same format as the network specifications of previous upgrades, and assumes them as pre-requisite. This document should be viewed as additive to the documents from Phase 0 and from Altair and will be referred to as the "Phase 0 document" and "Altair document" respectively, hereafter. Readers should understand the Phase 0 and Altair documents and use them as a basis to understand the changes outlined in this document.

Table of contents

• Warning
• Modifications in the Merge
  • Configuration
  • The gossip domain: gossipsub
    • Topics and messages
      • Global topics
        • beacon_block
    • Transitioning the gossip
  • The Req/Resp domain
    • Messages
      • BeaconBlocksByRange v2
      • BeaconBlocksByRoot v2
• Design decision rationale
  • Gossipsub
    • Why was the max gossip message size increased at the Merge?
  • Req/Resp
    • Why was the max chunk response size increased at the Merge?

Warning

This document is currently illustrative for early Merge testnets and some parts are subject to change. Refer to the note in the validator guide for further details.

Modifications in the Merge

Configuration

This section outlines modifications constants that are used in this spec.

Name	Value	Description
GOSSIP_MAX_SIZE_MERGE	10 * 2**20 (= 10,485,760, 10 MiB)	The maximum allowed size of uncompressed gossip messages starting at the Merge upgrade.
MAX_CHUNK_SIZE_MERGE	10 * 2**20 (= 10,485,760, 10 MiB)	The maximum allowed size of uncompressed req/resp chunked responses starting at the Merge upgrade.

The gossip domain: gossipsub

Some gossip meshes are upgraded in the Merge to support upgraded types.

Topics and messages

Topics follow the same specification as in prior upgrades. All topics remain stable except the beacon block topic which is updated with the modified type.

The specification around the creation, validation, and dissemination of messages has not changed from the Phase 0 and Altair documents unless explicitly noted here.

Starting at the Merge upgrade, each gossipsub message has a maximum size of GOSSIP_MAX_SIZE_MERGE. Clients MUST reject (fail validation) messages that are over this size limit. Likewise, clients MUST NOT emit or propagate messages larger than this limit.

The derivation of the message-id remains stable.

The new topics along with the type of the data field of a gossipsub message are given in this table:

Name	Message Type
beacon_block	SignedBeaconBlock (modified)

Note that the ForkDigestValue path segment of the topic separates the old and the new beacon_block topics.

Global topics

The Merge changes the type of the global beacon block topic.

beacon_block

The type of the payload of this topic changes to the (modified) SignedBeaconBlock found in the Merge. Specifically, this type changes with the addition of execution_payload to the inner BeaconBlockBody. See the Merge state transition document for further details.

In addition to the gossip validations for this topic from prior specifications, the following validations MUST pass before forwarding the signed_beacon_block on the network. Alias block = signed_beacon_block.message, execution_payload = block.body.execution_payload.

• If the execution is enabled for the block -- i.e. is_execution_enabled(state, block.body) then validate the following:
  • [REJECT] The block's execution payload timestamp is correct with respect to the slot -- i.e. execution_payload.timestamp == compute_timestamp_at_slot(state, block.slot).

Transitioning the gossip

See gossip transition details found in the Altair document for details on how to handle transitioning gossip topics for the Merge.

The Req/Resp domain

Messages

BeaconBlocksByRange v2

Protocol ID: /eth2/beacon_chain/req/beacon_blocks_by_range/2/

Request and Response remain unchanged unless explicitly noted here.

Starting at the Merge upgrade, a global maximum uncompressed byte size of MAX_CHUNK_SIZE_MERGE MUST be applied to all method response chunks regardless of type specific bounds that MUST also be respected.

The Merge fork-digest is introduced to the context enum to specify the Merge block type.

Per context = compute_fork_digest(fork_version, genesis_validators_root):

fork_version	Chunk SSZ type
GENESIS_FORK_VERSION	phase0.SignedBeaconBlock
ALTAIR_FORK_VERSION	altair.SignedBeaconBlock
MERGE_FORK_VERSION	merge.SignedBeaconBlock

BeaconBlocksByRoot v2

Protocol ID: /eth2/beacon_chain/req/beacon_blocks_by_root/2/

Request and Response remain unchanged. The Merge fork-digest is introduced to the context enum to specify the Merge block type.

Per context = compute_fork_digest(fork_version, genesis_validators_root):

fork_version	Chunk SSZ type
GENESIS_FORK_VERSION	phase0.SignedBeaconBlock
ALTAIR_FORK_VERSION	altair.SignedBeaconBlock
MERGE_FORK_VERSION	merge.SignedBeaconBlock

Design decision rationale

Gossipsub

Why was the max gossip message size increased at the Merge?

With the addition of ExecutionPayload to BeaconBlocks, there is a dynamic field -- transactions -- which can validly exceed the GOSSIP_MAX_SIZE limit (1 MiB) put in place in place at Phase 0. At the GAS_LIMIT (~30M) currently seen on mainnet in 2021, a single transaction filled entirely with data at a cost of 16 gas per byte can create a valid ExecutionPayload of ~2 MiB. Thus we need a size limit to at least account for current mainnet conditions.

Geth currently has a max gossip message size of 10 MiB. To support backward compatibility with this previously defined network limit, we adopt GOSSIP_MAX_SIZE_MERGE of 10 MiB for maximum gossip sizes at the point of the Merge and beyond. Note, that clients SHOULD still reject objects that exceed their maximum theoretical bounds which in most cases is less than GOSSIP_MAX_SIZE_MERGE.

Note, that due to additional size induced by the BeaconBlock contents (e.g. proposer signature, operations lists, etc) this does reduce the theoretical max valid ExecutionPayload (and transactions list) size as slightly lower than 10 MiB. Considering that BeaconBlock max size is on the order of 128 KiB in the worst case and the current gas limit (~30M) bounds max blocksize to less than 2 MiB today, this marginal difference in theoretical bounds will have zero impact on network functionality and security.

Req/Resp

Why was the max chunk response size increased at the Merge?

Similar to the discussion about the maximum gossip size increase, the ExecutionPayload type can cause BeaconBlocks to exceed the 1 MiB bounds put in place during Phase 0.

As with the gossip limit, 10 MiB is selected because this is firmly below any valid block sizes in the range of gas limits expected in the medium term.

As with both gossip and req/rsp maximum values, type-specific limits should always by simultaneously respected.