<p dir="ltr">+1 grarpamp</p>
<p dir="ltr">bits with decimal prefixes is the only thing that makes sense in the networking world.</p>
<div class="gmail_quote">On 20 Jan 2015 00:09, "grarpamp" <<a href="mailto:grarpamp@gmail.com">grarpamp@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br type="attribution"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">On Mon, Jan 19, 2015 at 5:55 AM, Sebastian Urbach <<a href="mailto:sebastian@urbach.org">sebastian@urbach.org</a>> wrote:<br>
> I opened a ticket recently with the intention to use a more common unit than<br>
> MiB/s for metrics. Karsten basically agrees but is waiting for more input.<br>
><br>
> <a href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/14257" target="_blank">https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/14257</a><br>
<br>
Tor is at its core a network application, an interface to the<br>
network, a router. In the real ISP world therein everyone speaks<br>
in "mega bits per second" "10^n" (and now with 100Gbps<br>
links, in Gbps).<br>
<br>
Only the downstream hosting world speaks in "mega bytes"<br>
"2^n", "per" "whatever time unit they dream up". This comes<br>
from attempts by hosters to appease people pushing their<br>
disk files MiB's over the net at link rate, not spread over bandwidth<br>
rate. In fact, the hosters have to convert that appeasement on their<br>
backend to aggregated Mbps so they can talk to their real ISP's.<br>
<br>
I've suggested before that Tor project should use Mbit/s (or Mbps<br>
or Mbit[s] where the slash presents a problem) as its primary default<br>
representation for Tor client and all related projects that refer to bandwidth.<br>
Tor is a bandwidth app, especially at the relay level. There is no disk or<br>
instantaneous link rate transfer need applying to Tor relay. (As opposed<br>
to user level which is more of a mashup of rate usage contexts and<br>
interests similar to bittorrent/webserving.)<br>
<br>
Then if people want MiB's or MB's so they can continue perpetuating<br>
and interfacing with hosters who do the same, you could add a<br>
few global prefix, unit and time options to switch all representations<br>
over at once. (Tor client has recently added per stanza Mbps<br>
configs which is a fine alternative to global. Yet again, the manpage<br>
and even maybe the code still uses nonsense in regards to capitalization,<br>
base 2 vs 10, crossed contexts, etc...)<br>
<br>
Start here, use the table in the upper right, ignore jedec,<br>
and pick and apply 10^n or 2^n representations consistantly.<br>
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_prefix" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_prefix</a><br>
<br>
"<br>
BandwidthRate N bytes|KBytes|MBytes|GBytes|KBits|MBits|GBits<br>
A token bucket limits the average incoming bandwidth usage on this<br>
node to the specified number of bytes per second, and the average<br>
outgoing bandwidth usage to that same value. If you want to run a<br>
relay in the public network, this needs to be at the very least 30<br>
KBytes (that is, 30720 bytes). (Default: 1 GByte)<br>
Notably, "KBytes" can also be written as "kilobytes" or "kb";<br>
"<br>
<br>
No, "KBytes" is invalid, there is no capital "K", only "k (SI)" and<br>
"Ki (binary)".<br>
Nor is "b" ever a byte, nor is "Bit[s]" ever capitalized.<br>
True network applications should also not be crossing network-like prefixes<br>
with disk-like objects or vice versa, ie: "Gibit[s] (non-network<br>
binary and single bit)",<br>
or the "GBytes (network SI and binary multiples of bit)" above.<br>
If you cross it up or make errors in context in one place that throws all your<br>
docs and configs into question. Even I still mess it up sometimes.<br>
<br>
"<br>
it's easy to forget that "B" means bytes, not bits.<br>
"<br>
<br>
Nope :) Abbr "B" means "byte" (now formally of width eight bits as in "octet/o",<br>
and still unfortunately caveat "bel/B" as in "dB"), and abbr "bit" means "bit",<br>
(and "b" is now just nothing but informal efficient shorthand for<br>
"bit" if I recall).<br>
<br>
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEC_80000-13" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEC_80000-13</a><br>
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byte" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byte</a><br>
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octet_(computing)" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octet_(computing)</a><br>
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bit" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bit</a><br>
<br>
Anyway, tor relay is network not disk, so I'd suggest megabits,<br>
or kilo/giga as scale appropriate.<br>
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</blockquote></div>