DHT protocol APIs

1. Libtorrent’s DHT security extension is enforced, requiring the Node ID to be restricted by the external IP.
2. Default’s libtorrent’s parameters are used: search_branching (alpha) = 5, bucket_size (k) = 8 and agressive_lookup = true.
3. Stored resources meant for persistence in DHT network (like profile, avatar etc) are refreshed every hour. Previous studies have shown (Paper: Profiling a million user dht) that, under some assumptions and configurations, long-term data persistence may be achieved by refreshing every couple of hours.
4. Persisted resources are also saved to disk and restored when twister daemon restarts.

query = {"t":"aa", "z":"q", "q":"ping", "x":{"id":"abcdefghij0123456789"}}  
 
response = {"t":"aa", "z":"r", "r": {"id":"mnopqrstuvwxyz123456"}}

query = {"t":"aa", "z":"q", "q":"findNode", "x": {
  "id":"abcdefghij0123456789", "target":"mnopqrstuvwxyz123456"}}
 
response = {"t":"aa", "z":"r", "r": {"id":"0123456789abcdefghij", "nodes": "def456..."}}

Note: this command may be removed in future.

query = {"t":"aa", "z":"q", "q":"announce_peer", "x": {
  "id":"abcdefghij0123456789", "implied_port": 1, "info_hash":"mnopqrstuvwxyz123456",
  "port": 6881, "token": "aoeusnth"}}
 
response = {"t":"aa", "z":"r", "r": {"id":"mnopqrstuvwxyz123456"}}

Unlike BitTorrent DHT, getPeers command doesn’t exist. Use command getData with “target”={“username”,“tracker”,“m”} instead.

query = {"t":"aa", "z":"q", "q":"putData", "x": {
  "id":"abcdefghij0123456789", "sig_p":"34fdd3wdw", "sig_user":"nobody", "token": "aoeusnth", "p": {
    "v" : "arbitrary-value", "seq" : "10", "time" : "13131321321", height : "1000", "target": {
     "n":"name", "r":"resource", "t":"m" }}}}
 
response = {"t":"aa", "z":"r", "r": {"id":"mnopqrstuvwxyz123456"}}

See general structure for content detail.

Note: target_id is the hash of bencoded “target” field.

query = {"t":"aa", "z":"q", "q":"getData", "x": {
  "id":"abcdefghij0123456789", "justtoken":"0", "target": {
    "n":"name", "r":"resource", "t":"m" }}}}
 
response = {"t":"aa", "z":"r", "r": {"id":"mnopqrstuvwxyz123456", "token": "aoeusnth", "data": [
  {"p":"data1", "sig_p":"34fdd3wdw", "sig_user":"nobody",
  {"p":"data2", "sig_p":"fg40958ejfdg", "sig_user":"twister" ] }}

See general structure for content detail.

Note: target_id is the hash of bencoded “target” field.