Inter-Blockchain Communication Message Relay Time Measurement and Analysis in Cosmos

This research presents a novel method to assess inter-chain message relay time in the Cosmos blockchain network, which employs the Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol for blockchain interoperability. While inter-chain transactions in Cosmos lag behind intra-chain transactions, this researc...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Meryam Essaid, Jungyeon Kim, Hongteak Ju
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2023-10-01
Series:Applied Sciences
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/13/20/11135
Description
Summary:This research presents a novel method to assess inter-chain message relay time in the Cosmos blockchain network, which employs the Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol for blockchain interoperability. While inter-chain transactions in Cosmos lag behind intra-chain transactions, this research conducts a thorough performance evaluation, emphasizing message relay time across diverse Cosmos chains. The results show a strong association between inter-chain transaction frequency and overall transaction processing speed (TPS), underscoring the inherent trade-off between scalability and compatibility in inter-chain communication protocols. A thorough understanding of inter-chain transaction performance is essential for advancing interoperability and improving cross-blockchain network designs. As a result, this research improves our understanding of Cosmos’ functionality and provides insightful recommendations for boosting the effectiveness and scalability of inter-chain communication. The study also sheds light on message delivery patterns in the Cosmos ecosystem, showing that IBC message relay time has an average duration of 55.448 s and is distributed lognormally. Notably, the time between the commitment of the IBC RecvPacket transaction and the commitment of the IBC Acknowledgement transaction (R to A time) considerably impacts the effectiveness of message transmission, which causes delays in the IBC message relay process.
ISSN:2076-3417