[WIP] [RFC] Multistream-2.0

multistream-2.0/retrospective.md

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+# Multistream-Select 1.0.0 Retrospective
+
+This short document aims to motivate the need for a new stream negotiation
+protocol.
+
+There are 5 concrete issues with multistream select.
+
+multistream-select:
+
+1. requires at least one round trip to be sound.
+2. negotiates protocols in series instead of in parallel. 
+3. doesn't provide any way to determine which side (possibly both) initiated the
+ connection/negotiation.
+4. is bandwidth inefficient.
+5. punishes long, descriptive, protocol names. 
+
+We ignore 1 and just accept that the protocol has some soundness issues as
+actually *waiting* for a response for a protocol negotiation we know will almost
+certainly succeed would kill performance.
+
+As for 2, we make sure to remember protocols known to be spoken by the remote
+endpoint so we can try to negotiate a known-good protocol first. However, this
+is still inefficient.
+
+Issue 3 gets us in trouble with TCP simultaneous connect. Basically, we need a
+protocol where both sides can propose a set of protocols to speak and then
+deterministically select the *same* protocol. Ideally, we'd also *expose* the
+fact that both sides are initiating to the user.
+
+By 4, I mean that we repeatedly send long strings (the protocol names) back and
+forth. While long strings *are* more user friendly than, e.g., port numbers,
+they're, well, long. This can introduce bandwidth overheads over 30%.
+
+Issue 5 is a corollary of issue 4. Because we send these protocol names *every*
+time we negotiate, we don't, e.g., send longer, better protocol names like:
+
+* /ai/protocol/p2p/bitswap/1.0
+* /ipfs/QmId.../bitswap/1.0
+
+However, multistream-select was *explicitly designed* with this use-case in
+mind.