[tor-bugs] #16723 [Tor]: randomize HH:MM in AccountingStart for a more even distribution of hibernating relay resources

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#16723: randomize HH:MM in AccountingStart for a more even distribution of
hibernating relay resources
-----------------------------+-------------------------------
     Reporter:  cypherpunks  |      Owner:
         Type:  enhancement  |     Status:  needs_information
     Priority:  normal       |  Milestone:
    Component:  Tor          |    Version:
   Resolution:               |   Keywords:
Actual Points:               |  Parent ID:
       Points:               |
-----------------------------+-------------------------------

Comment (by cypherpunks):

 > AccountingStart is the time at which the period starts, not the time at
 which relays wake up.


 lets make sure we mean the same thing when saying 'wake up':
 wake up = relay starts to relay traffic again/publishes a new descriptor
 where the hibernate flag is not set

 I understood AccountingStart as the time when the relay starts to relay
 traffic based on onionoo data.
 Maybe I'm wrong, but I'll explain how I came to that conclusion.

 Lets have a look at yesterday's data.

 There were 59 relays restarting at 2015-08-03 22:00:00 UTC.

 by 2015-08-04 02:00:00 (last_seen, hibernate=1) 12 relays were hibernating
 already (I assume: they used up their accountingmax already by that time,
 2 relays somewhere between 0:00-1:00 and 10 relays somewhere between 1:00
 - 2:00).

 data:
 https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nusenu/tor-network-
 observations/master/understanding_accountingstart_by_example.txt

 @nick: If I understood you correctly, a relay should wake up around ~20:00
 UTC if his calculations say that it will take 4 hours to eat up the
 accountingmax traffic (and his accountingstart is at 00:00 UTC).
 Onionoo data says otherwise or am I misinterpreting it?


 @teor: onionoo's 'last_restarted' field has second granularity (unlike
 first_seen and last_seen which are consensus timestamps with 1 hour
 granularity)

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/16723#comment:4>
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