Timing Node
Current Node Setup
Each Timing Node operates as a self-sufficient unit with the following configuration:
Hardware:
Zymbit SCM: A hardened Raspberry Pi CM4 compute module engineered for security compliance, high availability, and resilience when operating in zero-trust environments. This ensures the node's robustness in critical deployments.
Timebeat Timecard Mini: Follows Timebeat’s configuration to establish a reliable local clock with hardware-level precision.
Host Machine: A dedicated host machine manages inter-node communication and handles synchronization processes.
P2P Network with NAT Traversal
Currently Roko Network leverages libp2p to enable seamless peer-to-peer communication between Timing Nodes under diverse network conditions:
NAT Traversal:
Nodes behind firewalls or restricted environments use WebRTC and circuit relays for reliable time synchronization.
This ensures that nodes can discover and establish connections dynamically without requiring manual firewall adjustments.
Relay Support:
Relay nodes act as intermediaries for peers that cannot communicate directly.
This enables consistent, uninterrupted time sync across the network, even in complex or restrictive networking environments.
Node Goals
Decentralized Time Sync:
Nodes achieve high-precision time synchronization in a fully decentralized manner, eliminating reliance on centralized servers.
The system supports drift correction and ensures temporal stability across nodes using PTP-inspired methods.
Scalability & NAT-Friendly Operation:
Time sync mechanisms are designed to scale efficiently as the network grows, leveraging optimized peer connections.
Relay nodes enable operation in NAT-restricted environments, ensuring that no node is isolated, regardless of its network setup.
Independent Nodes:
Each node operates autonomously, maintaining an accurate local clock using hardware-level precision combined with peer-to-peer drift correction.
This autonomy ensures the network remains resilient against outages or failures in any individual node.
Timing Consensus Goals
The Timing Nodes will form the backbone of Roko Network’s timing consensus by ensuring:
Global Time Synchronization: Nodes collectively establish a shared temporal reference, enabling event ordering, transaction validation, and synchronization-sensitive applications.
Fault Tolerance: The decentralized architecture prevent single points of failure, guaranteeing continuous time sync even during partial network disruptions.
Precision Validation: By utilizing hardware-augmented timekeeping (Timebeat) and peer-to-peer corrections, nodes maintain sub-microsecond precision, essential for applications such as:
Robotic Coordination: Precise timing enables synchronized actions across autonomous agents.
Financial Transactions: Ensures accurate sequencing and time-stamped proofs of events.
Sim2Real Deployments: Synchronizes simulations with real-world robotic operations for accurate policy execution.
In achieving these goals, the Timing Nodes not only support local synchronization but also lay the foundation for Proof of Moment within the Roko Ledger, where precise temporal data becomes the anchor for consensus validation and truth preservation.
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