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Merge pull request #410 from /issues/344
IPIP-410: Streaming Routing V1 HTTP API
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title: "IPIP-0410: Streaming NDJSON in Routing HTTP API" | ||
date: 2023-05-12 | ||
ipip: proposal | ||
editors: | ||
- name: Henrique Dias | ||
github: hacdias | ||
url: https://hacdias.com/ | ||
relatedIssues: | ||
- https://github.com/ipfs/specs/issues/344 | ||
- https://github.com/ipfs/boxo/pull/18 | ||
- https://github.com/ipfs/kubo/pull/9868 | ||
- https://github.com/ipfs/kubo/pull/9874 | ||
order: 410 | ||
tags: ['ipips'] | ||
--- | ||
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## Summary | ||
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Introduce backwards-compatible streaming support to the Routing V1 HTTP API. | ||
For this, we use the `Accept` HTTP header (:cite[rfc9110]) for content type negotiation, as well | ||
as the Newline Delimited JSON ([NDJSON]) format. | ||
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## Motivation | ||
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The main motivation for this change is to allow servers to respond faster to the | ||
client with provider records, as soon as they are available. In the current state, | ||
the client requests a list of providers for a CID from the server. Then, the client | ||
has to wait for the server to collect their final list of providers. After that, | ||
the server can respond with the full list of providers. | ||
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This is a big source of latency when `/routing/v1` is used for delegating DHT lookups, | ||
where the client is forced to wait for the server to finish DHT walk. | ||
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With streaming support, the server is able to respond with provider records as soon | ||
as they are available. This reduces latency and allows for faster content discovery. | ||
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In addition, streaming responses may produce an unlimited amount of results, which | ||
is not the case for non-streamed responses. | ||
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## Detailed Design | ||
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In summary, streaming is supported by using the `Accept` HTTP header, which is used | ||
for content type negotiation as described in :cite[rfc9110]. The client sends an | ||
`Accept` HTTP header starting with `application/x-ndjson`, which is the content | ||
type for [NDJSON]. The following happens: | ||
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- The client adds the `Accept` HTTP header in the request starting with `application/x-ndjson`. | ||
- The server checks the `Accept` HTTP header from the request and, if it contains | ||
`application/x-ndjson`, they reply with NDJSON. If they don't support NDJSON, they | ||
can reply with JSON. | ||
- The server response MUST contain a `Content-Type` HTTP header indicating the | ||
response type, which may be either `application/json` for non-streaming responses, | ||
and `application/x-ndjson` for streamed responses. | ||
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For more details regarding the design, check :cite[http-routing-v1]. | ||
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## Design Rationale | ||
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This feature is designed such that it does not break compatibility with existing | ||
clients and servers. The `Accept` HTTP header is OPTIONAL. By default, the server | ||
MUST respond with `application/json` unless the client explicitly asked for | ||
`application/x-ndjson`. If the server does not support NDJSON, it is allowed | ||
to still respond with non-streamed JSON. | ||
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### User Benefit | ||
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Users (clients) will benefit from this change as the servers will now be able | ||
to respond more promptly to provider record requests. Instead of waiting for the whole | ||
list to be constructed, servers can now return each provider record one by one, | ||
in a streaming fashion. | ||
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The client will be able to close connection at any time, reducing load on both ends. | ||
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The main use cases for this IPIP are light clients and services which want to | ||
delegate DHT lookups to external service. With streaming, clients will be able | ||
to receive results as soon the delegated service learns about new record, which | ||
directly impacts the content load speeds perceived by the end user. | ||
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### Compatibility | ||
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The introduced changes are backwards-compatible. The introduced header is completely | ||
optional, and a server that does not support streaming is able to respond with a non-streaming | ||
response to the client. Equally, non-streaming responses are the default. Therefore, a | ||
client that does not support streaming will not receive a streamed response. | ||
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### Security | ||
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Security considerations are equivalent as the ones in :cite[ipip-0337]. | ||
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### Copyright | ||
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Copyright and related rights waived via [CC0](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/). | ||
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[NDJSON]: http://ndjson.org/ |
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