1 Filename: 145-newguard-flag.txt
2 Title: Separate "suitable as a guard" from "suitable as a new guard"
10 [This could be obsoleted by proposal 141, which could replace NewGuard
15 Right now, Tor has one flag that clients use both to tell which
16 nodes should be kept as guards, and which nodes should be picked
17 when choosing new guards. This proposal separates this flag into
22 Balancing clients amoung guards is not done well by our current
23 algorithm. When a new guard appears, it is chosen by clients
24 looking for a new guard with the same probability as all existing
25 guards... but new guards are likelier to be under capacity, whereas
26 old guards are likelier to be under more use.
30 We add a new flag, NewGuard. Clients will change so that when they
31 are choosing new guards, they only consider nodes with the NewGuard
34 For now, authorities will always set NewGuard if they are setting
35 the Guard flag. Later, it will be easy to migrate authorities to
36 set NewGuard for underused guards.
40 We might instead have authorities list weights with which nodes
41 should be picked as guards.