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Diffstat (limited to 'HACKING')
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diff --git a/HACKING b/HACKING new file mode 100644 index 000000000..77fb3a466 --- /dev/null +++ b/HACKING @@ -0,0 +1,60 @@ + +0. Intro. +Onion Routing is still very much in development stages. This document +aims to get you started in the right direction if you want to understand +the code, add features, fix bugs, etc. + +Read the README file first, so you can get familiar with the basics. + +1. The pieces. + +1.1 Connections. A connection is a long-standing tcp socket between +nodes. A connection is named based on what it's connected to -- an "OR +connection" has an onion router on the other end, an "OP connection" has +an onion proxy on the other end, an "exit connection" has a website or +other server on the other end, and an "AP connection" has an application +proxy (and thus a user) on the other end. + +1.2. Circuits. A circuit is a single conversation between two +participants over the onion routing network. One end of the circuit has +an AP connection, and the other end has an exit connection. AP and exit +connections have only one circuit associated with them, whereas OP and +OR connections multiplex many circuits at once. + +1.3. Cells. Some connections, specifically OR and OP connections, speak +"cells". This means that data over that connection is bundled into 128 +byte packets (8 bytes of header and 120 bytes of payload). Each cell has +a type, or "command", which indicates what it's for. + + + + +2. Other features. + +2.1. Bandwidth throttling. Each cell-speaking connection has a maximum +bandwidth it can use, as specified in the routers.or file. Bandwidth +throttling occurs on both the sender side and the receiving side. The +sending side sends cells at regularly spaced intervals (e.g., a connection +with a bandwidth of 12800B/s would queue a cell every 10ms). The receiving +side protects against misbehaving servers that send cells more frequently, +by using a simple token bucket: + +Each connection has a token bucket with a specified capacity. Tokens are +added to the bucket each second (when the bucket is full, new tokens +are discarded.) Each token represents permission to receive one byte +from the network --- to receive a byte, the connection must remove a +token from the bucket. Thus if the bucket is empty, that connection must +wait until more tokens arrive. The number of tokens we add enforces a +longterm average rate of incoming bytes, yet we still permit short-term +bursts above the allowed bandwidth. Currently bucket sizes are set to +ten seconds worth of traffic. + +The bandwidth throttling uses TCP to push back when we stop reading. +We extend it with token buckets to allow more flexibility for traffic +bursts. + +2.2. Data congestion control. + + + + |