tor/doc/spec/proposals/145-newguard-flag.txt
Nick Mathewson 1188df9c86 r16666@tombo: nickm | 2008-07-02 15:17:46 -0400
Mark 145 and 146 open (oops).  Add new proposal 147 about making v2 directories less needed.


svn:r15607
2008-07-02 19:17:51 +00:00

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Filename: 145-newguard-flag.txt
Title: Separate "suitable as a guard" from "suitable as a new guard"
Version: $Revision$
Last-Modified: $Date$
Author: Nick Mathewson
Created: 1-Jul-2008
Status: Open
Overview
Right now, Tor has one flag that clients use both to tell which
nodes should be kept as guards, and which nodes should be picked
when choosing new guards. This proposal separates this flag into
two.
Motivation
Balancing clients amoung guards is not done well by our current
algorithm. When a new guard appears, it is chosen by clients
looking for a new guard with the same probability as all existing
guards... but new guards are likelier to be under capacity, whereas
old guards are likelier to be under more use.
Implementation
We add a new flag, NewGuard. Clients will change so that when they
are choosing new guards, they only consider nodes with the NewGuard
flag set.
For now, authorities will always set NewGuard if they are setting
the Guard flag. Later, it will be easy to migrate authorities to
set NewGuard for underused guards.
Alternatives
We might instead have authorities list weights with which nodes
should be picked as guards.