Also keep in mind that what the bandwidth authorities actually measure is not total capacity but spare stream capacity (by downloading large files through at least 5 different two hop circuits times for each relay).
Wait... So if I understand this correctly the bandwidth number is the difference between the actual bandwidth of the node and the actively utilized bandwidth?
I looked high-and-low for a proper definition of the value, short of spending a day reading the source code, and did not find this. The way that the bandwidth status pages are ranked leads one to believe that the consensus bandwidth is effectively the size of the relays when in fact the ranking shows them in the order of unused bandwidth.
If my understanding is now correct, then at least for the smaller node I administer, the numbers I see are perfectly sensible.
Provided that the node is functioning, a lower number is a better number because that means the node is seeing significant use.
However I must complain that the consensus bandwidth does not say much about the relative health of a relay. Does a good (ungamable) way exist to show the bandwidth capacity of relays along with the available capacity?
Some information on the proper interpretation of bandwidth values ought to be placed somewhere prominent on the TorProject wiki. One paragraph would have preempted my posting this thread.