At 02:43 6/6/2015 -0400, starlight.2015q2@binnacle.cx wrote:
I'm back to complain further about erratic bandwidth authority behavior, previously. . .
MYSTERY SOLVED!!!
Of course one should always RTFS (read the fine specification) when trying to understand all things Tor.
First, scratch my previous time- averaging suggestion as the current implementation incorporates a sophisticated time averaging feedback algorithm borrowed from industrial control systems.
Turns out the problem of sudden, sharp, "schizophrenic" consensus jumps is a boundary artifact.
My relay is hovering right around the 12% threshold between the fastest and second fastest groups of relays (out of four groups).
These two groups operate as separate statistical domains, and the algorithm is complex enough that it would be shocking if the measurement of any one relay came out the same when moved from one group to the other group.
Looks to me like the relay is bouncing back-and-forth between the 0-12% band and the 12-35% band. This happens independently for each of the four BWauths. The 0-12% band assigned weight for the relay is anywhere from 130 to 200% of the weight calculated in the 12-35% band.
Group-hopping explains why the individual BWauth weights tend to jump dramatically and suddenly. The median-weight consensus selection adds an additional element of randomness.
Assigned-weight moves smoothly within either group, but is discontinuous when shifting from one group to the next.
Is interesting that 'moria1' consistently reports much higher weights than the three other BWauths. Might be that one of the algorithm parameters is set to a different value for this authority.