[tor-dev] Proposal: Tor bandwidth measurements document format

[teor]

On 2 May 2018, at 19:18, Iain Learmonth <irl at torproject.org> wrote:

>> "Measurements Results" describes how the bandwidths are created by
>> some generators. But a generator that believes self-reported results
>> doesn't measure, it just aggregates. (As does a peerflow-style generator.)
>> 
> I'm not sure I understand this. Are you saying that the format will be
> used to aggregate results that are collected? In this case, I think the
> results can still be called results in that they correspond to an active
> measurement of a relay and have a value.

No, I'm saying that the spec is about the format.
It's not about how the numbers in a file in the format are created.

"Measurement" is one way we can create the file.

Other ways to create the file are:
* "copy" self-reported bandwidths from relay descriptors into the
  required format (the naive, pre-bandwidth scanner method)
* "aggregate" bandwidths passively observed by other relays into the
  required format (the peerflow method)
* assign all relays equal bandwidths (the fallback method in Appendix B)

So let's try to keep "relay measurement" and "relay bandwidths" as
separate concepts.

T