Integrating Iroh For TDF Blob Transport: A Data Plane Solution

Nov 26, 2025 by Alex Johnson 63 views

Integrating Iroh as Data Plane for TDF Blob Transport

This article discusses the integration of Iroh as a dedicated Data Plane for transporting heavy, encrypted TDF (Transparent Data Format) blobs within the Arkavo Edge agent. The current system utilizes mDNS and WebSockets for Agent-to-Agent (A2A) discovery, coordination, and MCP (Model Context Protocol) communication. To enhance the efficiency and scalability of data transfer, Iroh will be integrated to handle the peer-to-peer transfer of TDF content between Agents and ARKFS nodes.

Current Architecture and the Need for Iroh

Currently, the Arkavo Edge agent relies on mDNS and WebSockets for agent discovery, coordination, and MCP communication. While this setup works well for signaling and control messages, it is not optimized for transferring large data blobs, such as encrypted TDF files. These files require a more robust and efficient data transport mechanism. This is where Iroh comes in, providing a peer-to-peer data plane that can handle the heavy lifting of TDF blob transfers.

The Limitations of the Current System

The existing system, while functional, presents several limitations when dealing with large data transfers. WebSockets, while suitable for real-time communication, can be bandwidth-intensive and may not scale efficiently for large file transfers. mDNS, primarily designed for service discovery within local networks, is not ideal for handling data transport across distributed environments. These limitations highlight the need for a dedicated data plane solution that can provide efficient, secure, and scalable data transfer capabilities.

Why Iroh? A Peer-to-Peer Solution

Iroh offers a compelling solution as a dedicated data plane due to its peer-to-peer architecture and efficient data handling capabilities. By leveraging Iroh, the Arkavo Edge agent can bypass the limitations of the current signaling channels for large data transfers. Iroh's peer-to-peer nature allows for direct data exchange between agents and ARKFS nodes, reducing latency and improving overall transfer speeds. Furthermore, Iroh's built-in security features ensure that TDF blobs are transferred securely, maintaining the integrity and confidentiality of the data.

Scope of Work: Producing and Consuming TDF Blobs via Iroh

The integration of Iroh will enable the Agent to both produce (stage) and consume (fetch) TDF blobs. This involves bridging the existing signaling channels with Iroh's data transport capabilities. The Agent will use Iroh to stage encrypted TDFs and pull them via Tickets, ensuring seamless data transfer between agents and ARKFS nodes.

Producer Capability: Staging and Signaling

The producer capability involves the Agent's ability to stage TDF blobs and signal their availability to other agents or ARKFS nodes. This process includes encrypting the data, adding it to the local Iroh store, and generating a Ticket. The Ticket serves as a pointer to the data within the Iroh network, allowing other participants to fetch the data. The implementation will include a stage_tdf function that takes the TDF data as input and returns the Iroh Ticket.

Use Case A: ARKFS Ingest

In the ARKFS ingest use case, the Agent calls the uploadBlob function, stages the TDF using Iroh, and sends the Ticket along with an NTDF Identity Token to ARKFS via HTTP. This allows ARKFS to retrieve the TDF blob from the Iroh network. This process streamlines the data upload to ARKFS, leveraging Iroh's efficient data transport capabilities.

Use Case B: Agent-to-Agent (A2A) Transfer

For A2A transfers, the Agent stages the TDF using Iroh and sends the Ticket to the peer Agent via the existing MCP/WebSocket channel. The peer Agent can then use the Ticket to fetch the TDF blob from the Iroh network. This enables direct data exchange between agents, reducing reliance on centralized infrastructure and improving transfer speeds.

Consumer Capability: Fetching and Decrypting

The consumer capability focuses on the Agent's ability to fetch TDF blobs using a Ticket and decrypt them. This process involves receiving a Ticket (either via MCP or an ARKFS response), connecting to the Iroh network, downloading the TDF blob, and passing it to the OpenTDF SDK for decryption. The implementation will include a fetch_tdf function that takes the Ticket as input and returns the decrypted TDF data.

Architecture: Control Plane and Data Plane

The integrated architecture will consist of two planes: the Control Plane and the Data Plane. The Control Plane, which is already in place, handles signaling, negotiation, and the exchange of Iroh Tickets. The Data Plane, powered by Iroh, will handle the efficient peer-to-peer transfer of the actual TDF content.

Control Plane: Signaling and Coordination

The Control Plane utilizes mDNS for discovery and WebSocket/MCP for signaling and negotiation. This plane is responsible for exchanging metadata, coordinating data transfers, and passing Iroh Tickets between agents and ARKFS nodes. The Control Plane ensures that agents can discover each other and establish secure communication channels for exchanging control messages.

Data Plane: Iroh for Efficient Data Transfer

The Data Plane is where Iroh comes into play. An embedded Iroh node will be used within the Agent to stage encrypted TDFs and pull them via Tickets. This plane is responsible for the actual data transfer, leveraging Iroh's peer-to-peer capabilities to ensure efficient and scalable data exchange. The Data Plane will handle NAT traversal, connection management, and data integrity, providing a robust foundation for TDF blob transport.

Key Objectives of Iroh Integration

The integration of Iroh aims to achieve several key objectives, including seamless Iroh node integration, producer capability for staging and signaling TDF blobs, and consumer capability for fetching and decrypting TDF blobs. These objectives ensure that Iroh is fully integrated into the Arkavo Edge agent, providing a comprehensive data plane solution.

Iroh Node Integration: Embedding Iroh within the Agent

The first objective is to seamlessly integrate an Iroh node within the Agent's runtime. This involves spawning an embedded iroh node as a background service and ensuring that its lifecycle runs alongside the existing tokio tasks for WebSockets/mDNS. This integration allows the Agent to leverage Iroh's data transport capabilities without requiring external dependencies or complex configurations.

Producer Capability: Stage and Signal TDF Blobs

Implementing the producer capability involves creating a stage_tdf function that allows the Agent to encrypt data, add it to the local Iroh store, and generate a Ticket. This function is crucial for enabling the Agent to stage TDF blobs and signal their availability to other participants in the network. The generated Ticket serves as a pointer to the data within the Iroh network, allowing authorized parties to fetch the data.

Consumer Capability: Fetch and Decrypt TDF Blobs

The consumer capability is implemented through the fetch_tdf function, which allows the Agent to receive a Ticket, connect to the Iroh network, download the TDF blob, and pass it to the OpenTDF SDK for decryption. This function enables the Agent to retrieve TDF blobs from the Iroh network and decrypt them, ensuring secure access to the data.

Proposed Implementation Sketch

The following code snippet illustrates the proposed implementation of the AgentDataPlane struct and its associated functions for staging and fetching TDF blobs using Iroh.

use iroh::node::{Node, Ticket};
// Existing imports for MCP, WebSocket, OpenTDF...

pub struct AgentDataPlane {
    node: Node<iroh::baomap::mem::Store>,
}

impl AgentDataPlane {
    /// Initialize Iroh in background
    pub async fn new() -> Result<Self, anyhow::Error> {
        let node = Node::memory().spawn().await?;
        Ok(Self { node })
    }

    /// Stage a TDF for transport (returns the Iroh Ticket)
    pub async fn stage_tdf(&self, tdf_bytes: Vec<u8>) -> Result<String, anyhow::Error> {
        let (hash, _len) = self.node.blobs.add_bytes(tdf_bytes).await?;
        // Create a ticket with default duration
        let ticket = self.node.ticket(hash, Default::default()).await?;
        Ok(ticket.to_string())
    }

    /// Fetch a TDF from a peer or ARKFS using a Ticket
    pub async fn fetch_tdf(&self, ticket_str: &str) -> Result<Vec<u8>, anyhow::Error> {
        let ticket = Ticket::from_str(ticket_str)?;
        // Iroh handles the P2P connection (NAT traversal, etc.)
        let content = self.node.blobs.download(ticket).await?;
        Ok(content.into())
    }
}

// Integration Example: uploadBlob (ARKFS Ingest)
pub async fn upload_blob_flow(agent_identity: &Identity, data: Vec<u8>) -> Result<()> {
    // 1. Encrypt (OpenTDF)
    let tdf = agent_identity.encrypt_data(data).await?;
    
    // 2. Stage (Iroh)
    let data_plane = AgentDataPlane::new().await?;
    let ticket = data_plane.stage_tdf(tdf).await?;
    
    // 3. Signal (HTTP to ARKFS)
    // Note: Use existing auth crate to generate NTDF Token
    let ntdf_token = agent_identity.sign_ntdf_header()?;
    arkfs_client::post_ingest(ticket, ntdf_token).await?;
    
    Ok(())
}

// Integration Example: A2A (MCP)
pub async fn mcp_share_flow(peer_socket: &WebSocket, data: Vec<u8>) -> Result<()> {
    // 1. Stage (Iroh)
    let ticket = GlobalDataPlane.stage_tdf(data).await?;
    
    // 2. Signal (MCP over WebSocket)
    // Send the Ticket string as an MCP resource URI or tool result
    mcp::send_message(peer_socket, McpMessage::Resource { uri: ticket }).await?;
    
    Ok(())
}

AgentDataPlane Struct

The AgentDataPlane struct manages the Iroh node instance within the Agent. It includes methods for initializing Iroh, staging TDF blobs, and fetching TDF blobs. The new function initializes the Iroh node in the background, while the stage_tdf function adds the TDF data to the Iroh store and generates a Ticket. The fetch_tdf function retrieves the TDF data from the Iroh network using a Ticket.

Integration Examples: ARKFS Ingest and A2A Transfer

The code snippet also includes integration examples for the ARKFS ingest and A2A transfer use cases. The upload_blob_flow function demonstrates how to upload a TDF blob to ARKFS using Iroh, while the mcp_share_flow function shows how to share a TDF blob with a peer Agent via MCP over WebSocket. These examples illustrate how Iroh can be seamlessly integrated into the existing workflows of the Arkavo Edge agent.

Task List for Iroh Integration

The integration of Iroh involves several tasks, including adding the iroh crate to Cargo.toml, implementing the AgentDataPlane struct, implementing the stage_tdf and fetch_tdf logic, updating the uploadBlob workflow, and verifying the coexistence of Iroh networking with existing mDNS/WebSocket ports.

Adding the `iroh` Crate

The first step is to add the iroh crate to the Cargo.toml file. This ensures that the Iroh library is included in the Agent's dependencies, allowing the Agent to use Iroh's functionalities.

Implementing the `AgentDataPlane` Struct

Implementing the AgentDataPlane struct involves creating the struct itself and defining its methods for initializing Iroh, staging TDF blobs, and fetching TDF blobs. This struct serves as the primary interface for interacting with Iroh within the Agent.

Implementing `stage_tdf` and `fetch_tdf` Logic

Implementing the stage_tdf and fetch_tdf logic involves writing the code that adds TDF data to the Iroh store, generates Tickets, retrieves TDF data using Tickets, and handles any necessary error conditions. These functions are crucial for the producer and consumer capabilities of the Agent.

Updating the `uploadBlob` Workflow

Updating the uploadBlob workflow involves modifying the existing workflow to use Iroh Tickets instead of multipart uploads. This ensures that the Agent leverages Iroh's efficient data transport capabilities for uploading TDF blobs to ARKFS.

Verifying Coexistence of Iroh Networking

Verifying the coexistence of Iroh networking with existing mDNS/WebSocket ports is crucial to ensure that the integration does not introduce any conflicts or disrupt existing functionalities. This involves testing the Agent in various network environments to ensure that Iroh operates seamlessly alongside mDNS and WebSockets.

Acceptance Criteria for Iroh Integration

The successful integration of Iroh will be evaluated based on several acceptance criteria, including the Agent's ability to exchange a large TDF file with another Agent using a Ticket passed over WebSocket and the Agent's ability to upload a TDF to ARKFS by staging it in Iroh and sending the Ticket to the Ingest endpoint.

A2A TDF Exchange via WebSocket

The Agent should be able to exchange a large TDF file with another Agent on the local network using a Ticket passed over WebSocket. This criterion ensures that Iroh is functioning correctly in a peer-to-peer environment and that the Agent can communicate effectively with other agents using Iroh.

ARKFS Upload via Iroh Ticket

The Agent should be able to upload a TDF to ARKFS by staging it in Iroh and sending the Ticket to the Ingest endpoint. This criterion ensures that Iroh is properly integrated with the ARKFS ingest workflow and that the Agent can upload TDF blobs to ARKFS using Iroh's data transport capabilities.

Conclusion

Integrating Iroh as a dedicated data plane for TDF blob transport within the Arkavo Edge agent promises to significantly enhance the efficiency, scalability, and security of data transfers. By leveraging Iroh's peer-to-peer architecture and efficient data handling capabilities, the Agent can overcome the limitations of the existing signaling channels and ensure seamless data exchange between agents and ARKFS nodes. The proposed implementation, along with the outlined task list and acceptance criteria, provides a clear roadmap for successful Iroh integration.

For further information on Iroh and its capabilities, you can visit the official Iroh website at https://iroh.computer/.