Traffic Congestion Control techniques. Re: Tragedy of the Commons - was Re: (FWD) Re: BitTorrent - can it be blocked?

[tor <tor@algae-world.com>]

Hi All,
    Hopefully this topic will server as a starting point for 
discussions about appropriate traffic congestion control/shaping
techniques/algorithms/tools for the TOR network.(sigh if this was 
standard TCP/IP we would just emit ICMP source quenchs to the source of 
the congestion to throttle the connection,(just 1 technique)).


So a couple of choices are in front of us, some constrained by the 
design goals of  TOR itself others by the effectiveness they either
provide or dont provide.


Client Throttling
has to be regarded as voluntary(nice clients).
a nasty/Bad/evil/incompetant  client can ruin the networks day or 
generate DMCA takedown notices via illegal BT traffic
for exit nodes, a DOS(permanent) against exit nodes in repressive 
jurisdictions(US etc).



Entry Router/Middleman Throttling

Is it possible given the current design?
if so what protects traffic transiting the node from  per protocol traffic
analysis by the Entry/middleman node itself(evil node)?
are the attacks possible by an evil entry node different
from those possible via an evil middleman TOR?


exit throttling

Network is Still under load, is it possible to have traffic congestion 
control and have an anonymous network still.
without redesigning BT as a M out of N shares Secret splitting problem?

Doesnt Solve DMCA issue. BT users can switch port usage etc, would 
require port utilization tracking/analysis
to stop BT.


Additions suggestions comments to the list please...

   a tor user
p.s. Think of it as evolution in action(i.e. evolve or die)(as an 
anonymous network, the anonymous remailer network faced a lot of these 
issues :)