[tor-dev] Improving hidden services on mobile phones

[George Kadianakis]

Hey list,

just for the record, during the past weeks we've been discussing how to improve
hidden services hosted on mobile phones in this here trac ticket:
       https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/16387
Discussion has also spilled over ticket #18620.

The discussion also has a design aspect as some suggested improvements would
require protocol changes, hence I'm informing this list in case some people are
interested in jumping in and participating.

For example, for some use cases it might make sense to have an HS -> IP cell
INTRODUCE2_ACK that acknowledges the receipt of INTRODUCE2 cells, so that the
IP knows that the intro circuit is active and the HS received the introduction
request before sending out its own INTRODUCE_ACK to the client. That's because
mobile hidden services are unstable and their intro circuits break frequently,
causing reachability issues. See the second part of
https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/16387#comment:8 for more background.

Have a good day :)