[tor-bugs] #26578 [Core Tor/Tor]: Do clients request new consensus documents more often than we expect?

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#26578: Do clients request new consensus documents more often than we expect?
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     Reporter:  arma          |      Owner:  (none)
         Type:  defect        |     Status:  new
     Priority:  Medium        |  Milestone:
    Component:  Core Tor/Tor  |    Version:
     Severity:  Normal        |   Keywords:
Actual Points:                |  Parent ID:
       Points:                |   Reviewer:
      Sponsor:                |
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 In our user count estimates, we used the reasoning that clients fetch a
 new consensus document every 2 to 4 hours, or on average 3 hours, so that
 represents 8 fetches per day on average.

 But in reality, it seems that clients fetch consensus documents way more
 frequently than that: looking at just my local Tor client, I see
 {{{
 Jun 28 21:11:52.190 [info] update_consensus_networkstatus_downloads():
 Launching microdesc standard networkstatus consensus download.
 Jun 28 22:43:52.355 [info] update_consensus_networkstatus_downloads():
 Launching microdesc standard networkstatus consensus download.
 Jun 28 23:59:52.417 [info] update_consensus_networkstatus_downloads():
 Launching microdesc standard networkstatus consensus download.
 Jun 29 01:42:52.501 [info] update_consensus_networkstatus_downloads():
 Launching microdesc standard networkstatus consensus download.
 Jun 29 03:33:52.601 [info] update_consensus_networkstatus_downloads():
 Launching microdesc standard networkstatus consensus download.
 Jun 29 05:09:52.699 [info] update_consensus_networkstatus_downloads():
 Launching microdesc standard networkstatus consensus download.
 Jun 29 06:04:52.754 [info] update_consensus_networkstatus_downloads():
 Launching microdesc standard networkstatus consensus download.
 Jun 29 07:54:52.874 [info] update_consensus_networkstatus_downloads():
 Launching microdesc standard networkstatus consensus download.
 Jun 29 08:56:52.946 [info] update_consensus_networkstatus_downloads():
 Launching microdesc standard networkstatus consensus download.
 Jun 29 10:32:53.036 [info] update_consensus_networkstatus_downloads():
 Launching microdesc standard networkstatus consensus download.
 Jun 29 12:36:53.121 [info] update_consensus_networkstatus_downloads():
 Launching microdesc standard networkstatus consensus download.
 Jun 29 14:06:53.186 [info] update_consensus_networkstatus_downloads():
 Launching microdesc standard networkstatus consensus download.
 Jun 29 14:53:53.215 [info] update_consensus_networkstatus_downloads():
 Launching microdesc standard networkstatus consensus download.
 Jun 29 15:52:53.256 [info] update_consensus_networkstatus_downloads():
 Launching microdesc standard networkstatus consensus download.
 Jun 29 17:15:53.319 [info] update_consensus_networkstatus_downloads():
 Launching microdesc standard networkstatus consensus download.
 Jun 29 18:20:53.367 [info] update_consensus_networkstatus_downloads():
 Launching microdesc standard networkstatus consensus download.
 }}}

 So first, this means maybe our user counting algorithms are off, since
 they involve heuristics like "divide by 10 where 10 is an estimate of the
 average daily consensus fetches from a client."

 And second, does it mean that we are putting more load on the network than
 we expected, or need? How often do clients need a new consensus document
 really?

--
Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/26578>
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