An API-Driven Framework for Performance Testing of Hyperledger Besu Blockchain Networks

• Carlos Cardoso UNIFAVIP / UFPA https://orcid.org/0009-0001-0720-1142
• Caio Silva UFPA
• Alan Veloso UFPA
• Jeffson Sousa UFPA / CPQD
• Antônio Abelém UFPA

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5753/ladc.2025.16872

Abstract

As Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLTs) mature into production-grade systems, a critical gap emerges between protocol-level benchmarking and application-centric performance testing. While specialized tools like Hyperledger Caliper excel at measuring core on-chain metrics, they are less suited for evaluating the end-to-end performance of applications that interact with the DLT through an intermediary API layer. This paper addresses this gap by proposing a three-tier, API-driven framework that enables mature, general-purpose load testing tools, such as Apache JMeter, to realistically assess a Hyperledger Besu network’s performance from an application’s perspective. The core of our solution is a custom API server that provides essential services like atomic nonce management and dynamic load balancing. Our comparative analysis demonstrates that while Caliper may report higher end-to-end throughput under specific conditions, our framework induces a significantly more substantial and evenly distributed load, revealing a more accurate picture of the network’s true processing capacity. Furthermore, our approach captures API-layer latency—a crucial metric for client-perceived responsiveness—which proved to be an order of magnitude lower than the on-chain finality measured by Caliper. This work validates a reusable architectural pattern for testing DLTs within a realistic application stack, bridging the gap between protocol benchmarking and real-world performance engineering.

Keywords: Performance Testing, Blockchain, Apache JMeter, Hyperledger Caliper, API-driven Architecture, Load Balancing, Performance Optimization

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