hole punching
establishing direct peer-to-peer connections through firewalls and NAT devices
address discovery
uses STUN-over-QUIC: the radio/endpoint learns its own public address and latency from radio/relay servers. this reflexive address is one of several candidates gathered during connection setup
candidate exchange
uses ICE-over-QUIC: discovers multiple address candidates — local, reflexive, and relay — then tests them in priority order. candidates are exchanged through the relay channel and probed concurrently
connection flow
- endpoint connects to radio/relay and it becomes the home relay
- peer requests a connection via the relay
- STUN/ICE attempts a direct path using gathered candidates
- if direct succeeds, the relay drops out of the data path
- if direct fails, the relay remains active as fallback
why it matters
direct connections are faster and more private than relayed ones. hole punching maximizes direct connectivity across the network
fallback
radio/relay provides guaranteed connectivity when NAT traversal fails. the endpoint seamlessly falls back without dropping the connection
for cyber
minimizes relay dependency, reducing latency and increasing privacy between neurons. fewer relayed hops also means lower focus costs for message delivery