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