Toward scalable docker-based emulations of blockchain networks for research and development  

作　　者：Diego Pennino Maurizio Pizzonia 

机构地区：[1]Universitàdegli Studi della Tuscia,Dipartimento di Economia,Ingegneria,Societàe Impresa,01100 Viterbo,Italy [2]Universitàdegli Studi Roma Tre,Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile,Informatica e delle Tecnologie Aeronautiche,00146 Rome,Italy

出　　处：《Blockchain(Research and Applications)》2024年第3期168-183,共16页区块链研究（英文）

基　　金：supported by project SERICS(PE00000014)under the MUR National Recovery and Resilience Plan funded by the European Union-NextGenerationEU.

摘　　要：Blockchain,like any other complex technology,needs a strong testing methodology to support its evolution in both research and development contexts.Setting up meaningful tests for permissionless blockchain technology is a notoriously complex task for several reasons:software is complex,a large number of nodes are involved,the network is non-ideal,etc.Developers usually adopt small virtual laboratories or costly real devnets based on real software.Researchers usually prefer simulations of a large number of nodes based on simplified models.In this paper,we aim to obtain the advantages of both approaches,i.e.,performing large,realistic,inexpensive,and flexible experiments,using real blockchain software within a virtual environment.To do that,we address the challenge of running large blockchain networks in a single physical machine,leveraging Linux and Docker.We analyze a number of problems that arise when large blockchain networks are emulated,and we provide technical solutions for all of them.Finally,we describe two experiences of emulating fairly large blockchain networks on a single machine:adopting both research-oriented and production-oriented software and involving more than 3000 containers.

关 键 词：Blockchain Blockchain emulation SCALABILITY DOCKER Research and development experiments 

分 类 号：TP311.13[自动化与计算机技术—计算机软件与理论]