Enhancing IPFS Bitswap

The InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) holds a pivotal role in the storage layer of the decentralized Web, commonly known as Web3. Its efficient functioning is crucial for a plethora of applications linked to blockchains, NFTs, and similar technologies. A key component, Bitswap, plays a central role in locating and exchanging files within the IPFS network. In this paper, we measure the latency of IPFS in fulfilling download requests and introduce an enhanced version of Bitswap designed to optimize its performance. We take into consideration the popularity of files and perform a series of experiments comparing the baseline version with our proposed method. Our findings indicate that, with the proposed improvements, the latency of download requests is significantly reduced, especially for content with low popularity. We also compare the two versions as network size grows, and demonstrate that our proposed method enhances the scalability of IPFS, as it keeps latency low without requiring node state to grow in proportion to the network size.