Network Architecture

The Network’s structure: three architectural layers, the off-chain coordination loop, and the on-chain anchor surfaces that bind it to the protocol.

Architectural Layers

Network Topology

The Network is operated by independent participants. Orchestrators run GPU nodes and any workers attached to them. Gateways run routing and payment infrastructure. Both run the same go-livepeer binary in different modes. A small operator runs one process; a large operator splits the modes across separate hosts on a private subnet, with the orchestrator on the network edge.

Solid arrows are off-chain traffic at job rate. Dashed arrows from the nodes to the chain are settlement and registration, at lower frequency. Dashed arrows from the observability surfaces are read-only data flows that let outside readers see what the Network is doing without operating any of it.

Traffic Planes

Inside the Network, four distinct kinds of traffic move on different transports at different rates. Separating them clarifies what scales, what bottlenecks, and what an outside observer can see.

The control and data planes are sized for production volume. The payment plane uses probabilistic settlement so the on-chain layer never sees per-segment traffic. The observability plane is read-only and decoupled from job execution.

Round Lifecycle

The on-chain layer advances in rounds of approximately 21 hours each (~5,760 Arbitrum L2 blocks). The active set, which orchestrators are eligible for video work, locks at the start of each round. Per-round inflation rewards distribute through BondingManager. The round is the cadence at which the protocol meets the Network.

Mid-round, capability advertisement and pricing can change. Eligibility cannot. An orchestrator that wants to enter the active set bonds during a round; eligibility takes effect at the next round boundary.

Off-Chain Coordination

The off-chain layer is what the Network is sized for. Discovery, capability advertisement, price agreement, job dispatch, and ticket exchange all happen here, between gateway and orchestrator, over standard transports. The chain stays out of the hot path.

Four communication patterns run continuously across the off-chain layer:

The active set, which orchestrators are eligible for video work, locks at the start of each round. Capability advertisement and pricing can change mid-round; eligibility cannot.

On-Chain Anchor Contracts

The Network reads from and writes to four contracts on Arbitrum One. These are the surfaces the off-chain layer relies on for ground truth.

Full contract addresses, ABIs, and reference.

External Observability

The Network is observable from outside through three surfaces. Researchers, evaluators, and integrators do not need to operate any node to see what the Network is doing.

The three surfaces share a property: they let an outside reader build a real picture of the Network’s state without trusting any single operator. Each surface reads ground truth from the chain or from operator-published data, not from a central authority.

How to read the Network state from outside.

Related Pages

Purpose, properties, actors.

Market shape, settlement, verification.

Reachable surfaces and entry points.

The four-layer Livepeer stack.