Block propagation time.

Question

Hello, I would like to measure the block propagation time between 2 nodes to get the average time of 1 hop. I suppose I could use the results of such test to estimate the time needed to propagate throughout the entire blockchain (by multiplying avg. hop time by the number of hops required to cover all nodes). I could then estimate the best values for target-block-time and maximum-block-size.

My idea was to connect 2 nodes and run multiple transactions on the node with mining permision, but I'm not sure how to get info on when the block was sent out or when it was received by the 2nd node. Is there a reliable way to do this?

Answer 1

You can use the blocknotify runtime parameter on both nodes to trigger an external script when the new block is added to the chain, and try to record the time (including milliseconds) on each using very well synchronized clocks. But FYI unless the block is big you will find it transfers in a fraction of a second.