diff --git a/packages/core/src/lib/base_protocol.ts b/packages/core/src/lib/base_protocol.ts
index f6fcd4663c..73db2a4469 100644
--- a/packages/core/src/lib/base_protocol.ts
+++ b/packages/core/src/lib/base_protocol.ts
@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
 import type { Libp2p } from "@libp2p/interface";
 import type { Stream } from "@libp2p/interface/connection";
-import type { PeerId } from "@libp2p/interface/peer-id";
 import { Peer, PeerStore } from "@libp2p/interface/peer-store";
 import type {
   IBaseProtocol,
@@ -9,10 +8,10 @@ import type {
   ShardInfo
 } from "@waku/interfaces";
 import { shardInfoToPubsubTopics } from "@waku/utils";
-import { getPeersForProtocol, selectPeerForProtocol } from "@waku/utils/libp2p";
+import { getPeersForProtocol, sortPeersByLatency } from "@waku/utils/libp2p";
 
 import { DefaultPubsubTopic } from "./constants.js";
-import { filterPeers } from "./filterPeers.js";
+import { filterPeersByDiscovery } from "./filterPeers.js";
 import { StreamManager } from "./stream_manager.js";
 
 /**
@@ -60,15 +59,6 @@ export class BaseProtocol implements IBaseProtocol {
     return getPeersForProtocol(this.peerStore, [this.multicodec]);
   }
 
-  protected async getPeer(peerId?: PeerId): Promise<Peer> {
-    const { peer } = await selectPeerForProtocol(
-      this.peerStore,
-      [this.multicodec],
-      peerId
-    );
-    return peer;
-  }
-
   /**
    * Retrieves a list of peers based on the specified criteria.
    *
@@ -93,8 +83,19 @@ export class BaseProtocol implements IBaseProtocol {
       this.multicodec
     ]);
 
-    // Filter the peers based on the specified criteria
-    return filterPeers(allPeersForProtocol, numPeers, maxBootstrapPeers);
+    // Filter the peers based on discovery & number of peers requested
+    const filteredPeers = await filterPeersByDiscovery(
+      allPeersForProtocol,
+      numPeers,
+      maxBootstrapPeers
+    );
+
+    const sortedFilteredPeers = await sortPeersByLatency(
+      this.peerStore,
+      filteredPeers
+    );
+
+    return sortedFilteredPeers;
   }
 
   initializePubsubTopic(shardInfo?: ShardInfo): PubsubTopic[] {
diff --git a/packages/core/src/lib/filterPeers.ts b/packages/core/src/lib/filterPeers.ts
index 298c9f15bc..380cdb30cf 100644
--- a/packages/core/src/lib/filterPeers.ts
+++ b/packages/core/src/lib/filterPeers.ts
@@ -2,14 +2,17 @@ import { Peer } from "@libp2p/interface/peer-store";
 import { Tags } from "@waku/interfaces";
 
 /**
- * Retrieves a list of peers based on the specified criteria.
+ * Retrieves a list of peers based on the specified criteria:
+ * 1. If numPeers is 0, return all peers
+ * 2. Bootstrap peers are prioritized
+ * 3. Non-bootstrap peers are randomly selected to fill up to numPeers
  *
  * @param peers - The list of peers to filter from.
  * @param numPeers - The total number of peers to retrieve. If 0, all peers are returned.
  * @param maxBootstrapPeers - The maximum number of bootstrap peers to retrieve.
  * @returns A Promise that resolves to an array of peers based on the specified criteria.
  */
-export async function filterPeers(
+export async function filterPeersByDiscovery(
   peers: Peer[],
   numPeers: number,
   maxBootstrapPeers: number
diff --git a/packages/core/src/lib/metadata/index.ts b/packages/core/src/lib/metadata/index.ts
index b3c6892ab0..1be215df2a 100644
--- a/packages/core/src/lib/metadata/index.ts
+++ b/packages/core/src/lib/metadata/index.ts
@@ -65,7 +65,10 @@ class Metadata extends BaseProtocol {
   async query(peerId: PeerId): Promise<ShardInfo> {
     const request = proto_metadata.WakuMetadataRequest.encode(this.shardInfo);
 
-    const peer = await this.getPeer(peerId);
+    const peer = await this.peerStore.get(peerId);
+    if (!peer) {
+      throw new Error(`Peer ${peerId.toString()} not found`);
+    }
 
     const stream = await this.getStream(peer);
 
diff --git a/packages/interfaces/src/peer_exchange.ts b/packages/interfaces/src/peer_exchange.ts
index 8183d6fe13..b194c9c6a9 100644
--- a/packages/interfaces/src/peer_exchange.ts
+++ b/packages/interfaces/src/peer_exchange.ts
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ export interface IPeerExchange extends IBaseProtocol {
 
 export interface PeerExchangeQueryParams {
   numPeers: number;
-  peerId?: PeerId;
+  peerId: PeerId;
 }
 
 export interface PeerExchangeResponse {
diff --git a/packages/peer-exchange/src/waku_peer_exchange.ts b/packages/peer-exchange/src/waku_peer_exchange.ts
index 21ac4aab4d..6ab7c5fc5e 100644
--- a/packages/peer-exchange/src/waku_peer_exchange.ts
+++ b/packages/peer-exchange/src/waku_peer_exchange.ts
@@ -42,7 +42,10 @@ export class WakuPeerExchange extends BaseProtocol implements IPeerExchange {
       numPeers: BigInt(numPeers)
     });
 
-    const peer = await this.getPeer(params.peerId);
+    const peer = await this.peerStore.get(params.peerId);
+    if (!peer) {
+      throw new Error(`Peer ${params.peerId.toString()} not found`);
+    }
 
     const stream = await this.getStream(peer);
 
diff --git a/packages/tests/tests/peer_exchange.node.spec.ts b/packages/tests/tests/peer_exchange.node.spec.ts
index 657d2c1781..2ca440a7d8 100644
--- a/packages/tests/tests/peer_exchange.node.spec.ts
+++ b/packages/tests/tests/peer_exchange.node.spec.ts
@@ -62,6 +62,7 @@ describe("Peer Exchange", () => {
       let peerInfos: PeerInfo[] = [];
       while (peerInfos.length <= 0) {
         peerInfos = (await peerExchange.query({
+          peerId: nwaku1PeerId,
           numPeers: numPeersToRequest
         })) as PeerInfo[];
         await delay(3000);
diff --git a/packages/utils/src/libp2p/index.ts b/packages/utils/src/libp2p/index.ts
index b5db2b73c2..10d780914e 100644
--- a/packages/utils/src/libp2p/index.ts
+++ b/packages/utils/src/libp2p/index.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,4 @@
 import type { Connection } from "@libp2p/interface/connection";
-import type { PeerId } from "@libp2p/interface/peer-id";
 import type { Peer, PeerStore } from "@libp2p/interface/peer-store";
 
 import { bytesToUtf8 } from "../bytes/index.js";
@@ -16,35 +15,39 @@ export function selectRandomPeer(peers: Peer[]): Peer | undefined {
 }
 
 /**
- * Returns the peer with the lowest latency.
+ * Function to sort peers by latency from lowest to highest
  * @param peerStore - The Libp2p PeerStore
  * @param peers - The list of peers to choose from
- * @returns The peer with the lowest latency, or undefined if no peer could be reached
+ * @returns Sorted array of peers by latency
  */
-export async function selectLowestLatencyPeer(
+export async function sortPeersByLatency(
   peerStore: PeerStore,
   peers: Peer[]
-): Promise<Peer | undefined> {
-  if (peers.length === 0) return;
+): Promise<Peer[]> {
+  if (peers.length === 0) return [];
 
   const results = await Promise.all(
     peers.map(async (peer) => {
-      const pingBytes = (await peerStore.get(peer.id)).metadata.get("ping");
-      if (!pingBytes) return { peer, ping: Infinity };
-
-      const ping = Number(bytesToUtf8(pingBytes)) ?? Infinity;
-      return { peer, ping };
+      try {
+        const pingBytes = (await peerStore.get(peer.id)).metadata.get("ping");
+        if (!pingBytes) return null;
+
+        const ping = Number(bytesToUtf8(pingBytes));
+        return isNaN(ping) ? null : { peer, ping };
+      } catch (error) {
+        return null;
+      }
     })
   );
 
-  const lowestLatencyResult = results.sort((a, b) => a.ping - b.ping)[0];
-  if (!lowestLatencyResult) {
-    return undefined;
-  }
+  // filter out null values
+  const validResults = results.filter(
+    (result): result is { peer: Peer; ping: number } => result !== null
+  );
 
-  return lowestLatencyResult.ping !== Infinity
-    ? lowestLatencyResult.peer
-    : undefined;
+  return validResults
+    .sort((a, b) => a.ping - b.ping)
+    .map((result) => result.peer);
 }
 
 /**
@@ -66,53 +69,6 @@ export async function getPeersForProtocol(
   return peers;
 }
 
-/**
- * Returns a peer that supports the given protocol.
- * If peerId is provided, the peer with that id is returned.
- * Otherwise, the peer with the lowest latency is returned.
- * If no peer is found from the above criteria, a random peer is returned.
- */
-export async function selectPeerForProtocol(
-  peerStore: PeerStore,
-  protocols: string[],
-  peerId?: PeerId
-): Promise<{ peer: Peer; protocol: string }> {
-  let peer: Peer | undefined;
-  if (peerId) {
-    peer = await peerStore.get(peerId);
-    if (!peer) {
-      throw new Error(
-        `Failed to retrieve connection details for provided peer in peer store: ${peerId.toString()}`
-      );
-    }
-  } else {
-    const peers = await getPeersForProtocol(peerStore, protocols);
-    peer = await selectLowestLatencyPeer(peerStore, peers);
-    if (!peer) {
-      peer = selectRandomPeer(peers);
-      if (!peer)
-        throw new Error(
-          `Failed to find known peer that registers protocols: ${protocols}`
-        );
-    }
-  }
-
-  let protocol;
-  for (const codec of protocols) {
-    if (peer.protocols.includes(codec)) {
-      protocol = codec;
-      // Do not break as we want to keep the last value
-    }
-  }
-  if (!protocol) {
-    throw new Error(
-      `Peer does not register required protocols (${peer.id.toString()}): ${protocols}`
-    );
-  }
-
-  return { peer, protocol };
-}
-
 export function selectConnection(
   connections: Connection[]
 ): Connection | undefined {