[tor-bugs] #17170 [Tor]: documenation for BandwidthRate etc should mention TCP/IP overhead not included

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#17170: documenation for BandwidthRate etc should mention TCP/IP overhead not
included
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 Reporter:  starlight    |          Owner:
     Type:  enhancement  |         Status:  new
 Priority:  minor        |      Milestone:
Component:  Tor          |        Version:
 Keywords:               |  Actual Points:
Parent ID:               |         Points:
  Sponsor:               |
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 The Tor manual page should mention that
 `BandwidthRate`, `BandwidthBurst`, etc control
 only application layer byte rates and that
 TCP/IP overhead adds approximately 17%
 to the total, or stated a different way
 the payload data rate is about 15% of
 total traffic.

 Is easy to overlook this important
 detail and it matters greatly when one is
 configuring maximums in order to stay
 within ISP bandwidth allocations.  ISPs
 count total traffic and over-limit charges
 can be extortionist.  Is unpleasant
 to exceed them by accident.

 The overhead accounting also matters if one
 is setting BandwidthRate for an unmetered
 Internet connection with the idea of
 minimizing TCP/IP congestion in preference
 to Tor router flow control.

 Generally ISPs do not charge for MAC layer
 bytes which are not carried on WAN links
 and so the above estimates omit it.

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/17170>
Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki <https://trac.torproject.org/>
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