munro

a p2p live streaming protocol inspired by ppspp and named after munro. The protocol is completely transport agnostic so it will work wherever you put it.

npm install munro

Usage

First someone must create some data

var munro = require('munro')
var disc = require('discovery-channel')()
var net = require('net')

var mro = munro()
mro.append('hello')
mro.append('world')

var server = net.createServer(function (socket) {
  socket.pipe(mro.peerStream()).pipe(socket)
})

disc.add(mro.id.slice(0, 20), server.address().port)
disc.on('peer', function (hash, peer) {
  var socket = net.connect(peer.port, peer.host)
  socket.pipe(mro.peerStream()).pipe(socket)
})

And then someone will consume it

var munro = require('munro')
var disc = require('discovery-channel')()
var net = require('net')

var mro = munro(id-from-example-above)

var server = net.createServer(function (socket) {
  socket.pipe(mro.peerStream()).pipe(socket)
})

disc.add(mro.id.slice(0, 20), server.address().port)
disc.on('peer', function (hash, peer) {
  var socket = net.connect(peer.port, peer.host)
  socket.pipe(mro.peerStream()).pipe(socket)
})

mro.get(0, function (err, block) {
  console.log(block.toString()) // 'hello'
})

API

var munro = munro(id)

create a new munro instance. If id is specified munro will not be able to broadcast pieces and all pieces recieved will be verified using the id.

var stream = munro.peerStream()

stream is a duplex stream which can be piped to peers in order to replicate data.

munro.broadcast(data)

munro will sign and broadcast the data to connected peers.

munro.get(index, cb)

if connected peers have index munro will attempt to download the data.

munro.destroy()

will destroy all peers and callback error to pending callbacks.

var ws = munro.writeStream()

instead of broadcasting every block. just write it to the stream.

var rs = munro.readStream()

read all the blocks when they become available and pipe them onwards

How does this even work?

Good question. When content is broadcast to the network it is only done so in peers look at the example below.

   1* // munro hash
 /   \
0     2

Two blocks of data are needed to generate a munro hash. Once the hash is generated it is signed off and the peer floods the network with have messages. If a peer is interested in the block it sends back a request message. The broadcaster then sends back the piece and other pieces that are needed to verify the authenticity so in this case it would send back block 2. Once the blocks have been recieved the peer is able to verify the authenticity of the content by calculating the munro hash. If all is well that peer then boadcasts have messages to all of its peers and the process is repeated. This was inspired by ppspp

-piedshag