Distributed Routing Algorithms for Concurrent Execution of Transactions in PCNs

Payment Channel Networks (PCNs) are an alternative to improve the scalability of a blockchain network. The network size of Bitcoin PCN is increasing rapidly; in the past three months, the number of nodes has more than doubled. With the increase in the network size, transactions on the network will also increase. However, the existing distributed routing algorithms cannot efficiently schedule concurrent transactions due to their static nature. We propose two algorithms, maxECW and maxSCL, which can handle concurrent transactions more efficiently. Our algorithms consider channel weights and introduce the concept of rebalancing to avoid the saturation of the directional capacity of a channel. We have also developed a simulator, DRLNsim, to compare our proposed algorithms with the existing ones. The routing algorithms are evaluated on the simulator by varying relevant parameters. On average, our proposed algorithms performed 50% more efficiently than existing algorithms in handling concurrent transactions.