Markers for Alpenglow Fast Leader Handover

Summary

We propose augmenting BlockMarkerV1, introduced in SIMD-0307, to include BlockHeader and UpdateParent variants. BlockHeader, placed at the beginning of a block, indicates the parent of the block. UpdateParent signals that the intended parent is different from what was initially indicated, paving the way for Fast Leader Handover support in Alpenglow (section 2.7 of https://www.anza.xyz/alpenglow-1-1).

Fast Leader Handover will minimize the synchronization delay between consecutive leaders, increasing throughput.

Motivation

SIMD-0326 proposes Alpenglow, a consensus protocol specified in https://www.anza.xyz/alpenglow-1-1. Section 2.7 in the paper describes Fast Leader Handover. This mechanism allows leaders to begin constructing blocks on tentative parent blocks before the parent is ensured to be correct. In the common case, this optimization increases throughput, by giving more time to the leader to stream the block. To ensure correctness, the leader may need to change the indicated parent while streaming the block.

New Terminology

• BlockHeader: Block marker variant indicating the block's parent. Placed in the beginning of block data.
• UpdateParent: Block marker variant indicating a changed parent.

Detailed Design

Specification

BlockHeader contains info about the parent block. UpdateParent marker contains info about the parent block that the leader switched to as a result of Fast Leader Handover. Each variant includes its own version field:

VersionedBlockHeader Layout:
+---------------------------------------+
| Version                     (1 byte)  |
+---------------------------------------+
| Payload (version-specific) (variable) |
+---------------------------------------+

VersionedUpdateParent Layout:
+---------------------------------------+
| Version                     (1 byte)  |
+---------------------------------------+
| Payload (version-specific) (variable) |
+---------------------------------------+

For Version 1:

BlockHeaderV1 Payload:
+---------------------------------------+
| Parent Slot                (8 bytes)  |
+---------------------------------------+
| Parent Block ID           (32 bytes)  |
+---------------------------------------+

Total payload size: 40 bytes
Total size with version: 41 bytes

UpdateParentV1 Payload:
+---------------------------------------+
| Parent Slot                (8 bytes)  |
+---------------------------------------+
| Parent Block ID           (32 bytes)  |
+---------------------------------------+

Total payload size: 40 bytes
Total size with version: 41 bytes

Fields:

• Version: Versioning byte for forward compatibility (u8)
• Parent Slot: The slot number of the (new) parent block (u64, little-endian)
• Parent Block ID: The block ID identifying the parent block (32-byte hash). The meaning of this field is left to specification in future Alpenglow-related SIMDs.

UpdateParent Code Sample

NOTE: BlockHeader has a nearly identical implementation. The markers are separate to allow future header extensions.

/// Always deserializes to the `Current` variant for forward compatibility.
/// ┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
/// │ Version                      (1 byte)   │
/// ├─────────────────────────────────────────┤
/// │ Update Data               (variable)    │
/// └─────────────────────────────────────────┘
pub enum VersionedUpdateParent {
    V1(UpdateParentV1),
    Current(UpdateParentV1),
}

/// Version 1 parent update data.
/// ┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
/// │ Parent Slot                  (8 bytes)  │
/// ├─────────────────────────────────────────┤
/// │ Parent Block ID             (32 bytes)  │
/// └─────────────────────────────────────────┘
pub struct UpdateParentV1 {
    pub new_parent_slot: Slot,
    pub new_parent_block_id: Hash,
}

Integration with BlockComponent

The UpdateParent marker integrates with the existing BlockComponent system:

/// Updated BlockMarkerV1.
/// Supports V1 features plus BlockHeader and UpdateParent.
/// ┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
/// │ Variant ID                   (1 byte)   │
/// ├─────────────────────────────────────────┤
/// │ Byte Length                  (2 bytes)  │
/// ├─────────────────────────────────────────┤
/// │ Variant Data              (variable)    │
/// └─────────────────────────────────────────┘
///
/// The byte length field indicates the size of the variant data that follows,
/// allowing for proper parsing even if unknown variants are encountered.
pub enum BlockMarkerV1 {
    BlockFooter(VersionedBlockFooter),
    BlockHeader(VersionedBlockHeader),
    UpdateParent(VersionedUpdateParent),
}

Serialization Format

Both BlockHeader and UpdateParent (variant 1 and 2) have the following structure while serialized within a BlockComponent in the first version:

+---------------------------------------+
| Entry Count = 0             (8 bytes) |
+---------------------------------------+
| Marker Version = 1          (2 bytes) |
+---------------------------------------+
| Variant ID = {1, 2}         (1 byte)  |
+---------------------------------------+
| Length = 41                 (2 bytes) |
+---------------------------------------+
| Version = 1                 (1 byte)  |
+---------------------------------------+
| Parent Slot                 (8 bytes) |
+---------------------------------------+
| Parent Block ID            (32 bytes) |
+---------------------------------------+

Total size: 54 bytes per marker

Marker Placement Rules

BlockHeader must be placed at the beginning of shred data of the first FEC set of every block.

At most one UpdateParent marker might be placed in a block, at the beginning of the shred data of one FEC set. Only the first block of a leader window can include the UpdateParent marker.

Otherwise, the given block is invalid.

DATA_COMPLETE_SHRED Placement Rules

Due to the logic of Alpenglow, validators need to be able to process the UpdateParent marker outside of replay, even without ever replaying the initial parent block. To make this possible, we introduce additional rules for the DATA_COMPLETE_SHRED flag in data shreds. Most implementations already follow this rule, but it's not yet enforced.

FEC sets in Alpenglow will follow a fixed structure:

• Each FEC set contains exactly 32 data shreds (insufficient data is zero-padded)
• Each FEC set contains exactly 32 coding shreds for error correction.

All implementations MUST enforce that the DATA_COMPLETE_SHRED flag can only appear as true on the final data shred within an FEC set (index position 31 within the set). Otherwise, the block is invalid.

All implementations MUST enforce that UpdateParent marker can only start at the beginning of an FEC set, AND the previous FEC set's last data shred shows DATA_COMPLETE_SHRED as true. Otherwise, the block is invalid.

With these rules, UpdateParent marker can be detected at shred ingestion, without replaying block contents up to this point, like so:

• Check the 0th shred of the next FEC set when DATA_COMPLETE_SHRED is true in the current shred
• Check the current shred when the DATA_COMPLETE_SHRED is true in the previous shred.

See https://github.com/anza-xyz/alpenglow/pull/459 for an example implementation.

State Transition Rules:

After Fast Leader Handover is implemented, state transition will work as follows:

• State changes from transactions before the UpdateParent marker are discarded
• The UpdateParent marker itself does not modify state
• Post-UpdateParent marker transactions are built on the new parent's state
• Notably, despite pre-marker transaction state changes being discarded, all pre-marker shred data WILL be included in the constructed block.

Alternatives Considered

• Special Transaction Type. Rejected, because of overhead, and difficult and inconvenient implementation.

• Extended Block Footer. Rejected, because:

  • Difficult to represent the switch point withing the block.
  • The footer appears at the end of the block, delaying the parent switch detection.

• Shred Modification. Rejected, due to significant protocol changes required, backward compatibility challenges, complexity and impact on existing shred processing.

Impact

• Positive:

  • Paves the way for Fast Leader Handover that will increase throughput.

• Negative:

  • Slight block size overhead.

Examples of Edge Cases

Unexpected UpdateParent: A malicious leader attempting to include an UpdateParent in slots 2-4 of their leader window.

UpdateParent markers are only allowed in the first slot of a leader window. Upon witnessing an UpdateParent marker on a different block, a receiving validator MUST deem the block invalid and invoke TrySkipWindow(slot) according to the protocol logic.

Multiple UpdateParents in a Single Block: A malicious leader attempting to create blocks on multiple parents simultaneously:

At most a single UpdateParent marker per block is allowed. Upon witnessing two or more markers within a block, a receiving validator MUST deem the block invalid and invoke TrySkipWindow(slot) according to the protocol logic.

Invalid Parent Reference: Leader references a non-existent or invalid parent:

If the receiving validator cannot validate the parent block in time, the receiving validator will time out and invoke TrySkipWindow(slot).

NOTE: in each of the above cases, TrySkipWindow(slot) is NOT the same as unconditionally issuing a skip vote.

Feature Flag Protection:

• BlockHeader and UpdateParent markers will be processed if and only if the Alpenglow feature is activated
• Validators must run with a client containing Alpenglow code to process blocks with UpdateParent and/or BlockHeader markers
• Missing or malformed version fields will fail deserialization gracefully

Security Considerations

Upon launching Alpenglow, validators must validate blocks according to the Alpenglow protocol.

Backwards Compatibility

Blocks containing UpdateParent markers are not backward compatible with validators that do not support Alpenglow. Blocks will not include UpdateParent markers until the Alpenglow feature flag has been activated.

Reference Implementation

A reference implementation is available here: https://github.com/anza-xyz/alpenglow/pull/364