IPFS requested content location service

Abstract

This paper introduces the IPFS requested content location service, a software service to monitor the operation of IPFS from the perspective of the content requested through IPFS gateways. The software is provided as a docker stack that consumes the logs of one or more IPFS gateways, extracts the CID of the requested content and the IP address of the requester, and queries the IPFS network for the providers of the content. The software also matches the IP addresses of the requesters and providers with their geographic location, and stores the results in a database for later analysis. The software has been used in our previous measurement study, published at DAIS'23, that analyzed the operation of IPFS from the perspective of the content requested through gateways.