Allow on-demand network partitioning of clients

[marioevz]

Based on the requirements of the new interoperability test cases for Execution Layer + Consensus Layer clients (from https://github.com/ethereum/pm/blob/master/Merge/mainnet-readiness.md):

• Hive: scenario with PoW network partitioning
• EL/CL client offline or not upgraded before/during/after transition

As well as other test scenarios where the network it temporarily disrupted, it would be valuable to analyze adding functionality to hive that allows to simulate a disconnection/isolation between specific sets of clients, and then reconnect on demand after a set of events have passed.

Example test scenario:

• Have a set of client pairs A, B, C... where each pair contains 1 EL + 1 CL clients.
• Have all pairs see each other and sync up to a given point before the TTD/merge is reached.
• Isolate each pair of clients from each other. I.e. Execution client within Pair A cannot see execution clients from pairs B, C, ..., consensus client within Pair A cannot see consensus clients from pairs B, C, ...
• Wait for pairs to reach and pass the TTD/merge, effectively having an isolated transition.
• Have all pairs see each other again, and verify consensus is reached regardless of the disruption.

Opening this issue to begin discussion on whether this is a good feature to have implemented in hive.

[fjl]

I'm not sure what the question in this issue is. In general, what you describe sounds like a good test to have.

If you are asking whether hive provides the technical means to implement this, the answer is yes. It is possible to create multiple networks and attach/detach clients from those networks during a test.

[fjl]

Specifically, this can be done using the CreateNetwork, ConnectContainer, DisconnectContainer methods.

[marioevz]

Thanks for the insight @fjl, yes I think this is exactly what's needed for the implementation of the test case.

I would like to give it a go to implement the test case, should we keep this issue open to track the test case implementation or should I open a new one?

[fjl]

You can just keep it open.