[tor-project] Diversifying Bandwidth Measurement

[Sebastian Hahn]

Hi there,
> On 27 Feb 2017, at 02:34, teor <teor2345 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi Rob and bandwidth authority operators,
> 
> I've just been contacted by an Exit operator whose Exits have all seen a
> 60% drop in traffic over the last few weeks.
> 
> This drop has been caused by a drop in bandwidth authority measurements,
> which seems to affect Exit connections that transit to
> bwauth.torproject.org (cymru) through Cogent.
> 
> For example, from Australia, I get about 3 MB/s to
> bwauth.torproject.org [0]. A relay operator in France gets 500 KB/s.
> 
> This affects at least Online S.a.ss, Feralhosting, and trabia.
> Do we want Exit traffic concentrating in the US?
> (It seems all the affected networks are UK/EU.)
> 
> Is there any way that we can fix this?
> It also has a social impact: there are a number of disappointed
> exit operators out there.
> 
> Can someone run another bwauth HTTPS download server on another
> (non-North American?) network?
> The required files are listed here[1].
> 
> If they did, would the bandwidth authority operators apply a patch to
> use it?
> 
> Or could it go on 38.229.70.2 ?
> (That's the alternate bwauth address in the source code[2], but it's
> down.)
> 
> [0]: https://bwauth.torproject.org/bwauth.torproject.org/64M
> [1]: https://gitweb.torproject.org/torflow.git/tree/NetworkScanners/BwAuthority/aggregate.py#n323
> [2]: https://gitweb.torproject.org/torflow.git/tree/NetworkScanners/BwAuthority/bwauthority_child.py#n51

I am and always have been operating my own https server for the bw files
that sits directly next to the dirauth/bwauth server. I totally hoped
everoyne else was doing the same thing or at least not share the same
server for more than one bwauth instance. Is that incorrect?

As for the social aspect, life's tough is the best answer I have. The
implemented algorithm uses median, so if we fix this we probably
produce a bunch of unhappy US relay operators. Transatlantic bw sucks,
and if your hosting provider doesn't pay $$$ to have a decent connection
across the pond, you'll make people who use your relay sad also. I would
be quite willing to guess that the cheap hosters have good links to the
closest speed measurement website and nothing else...

Cheers
Sebastian

PS: What is the status on bwauth? Can I finally upgrade my bwauth? It
broke again twice recently, and it's keeping my dirauth on an older
OS version that I must migrate away from soon.