Add proposal 138: remove routers that are not Running from consensus documents.

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+Filename: 138-remove-down-routers-from-consensus
+Title: Remove routers that are not Running from consensus documents
+Version: $Revision$
+Last-Modified: $Date$
+Author: Peter Palfrader
+Created: 11-Jun-2008
+Status: Open
+
+1. Overview.
+
+  Tor directory authorities hourly vote and agree on a consensus document
+  which lists all the routers on the network together with some of their
+  basic properties, like if a router is an exit node, whether it is
+  stable or whether it is a version 2 directory mirror.
+
+  One of the properties given with each router is the 'Running' flag.
+  Clients do not use routers that are not listed as running.
+
+  This proposal suggests that routers without the Running flag are not
+  listed at all.
+
+2. Current status
+
+  At a typical bootstrap a client downloads a 140KB consensus, about
+  10KB of certificates to verify that consensus, and about 1.6MB of
+  server descriptors, about half of which it requires before it will
+  start building circuits.
+
+  Another proposal deals with how to get that huge 1.6MB fraction to
+  effectively zero (by downloading only individual descriptors, on
+  demand).  Should that get successfully implemented that will leave the
+  140KB compressed consensus as a large fraction of what a client needs
+  to get in order to work.
+
+  About one third of the routers listed in a consensus are not running
+  and will therefor never be used by clients who use this consensus.
+  Not listing those routers will safe about 30% to 40% in size.
+
+3. Proposed change
+
+  Authority directory servers produce vote documents that include all
+  the servers they know about, running or not, like they currently
+  do.  In addition these vote documents also state that the authority
+  supports a new consensus forming method (method number 4).
+
+  If more than two thirds of votes that an authority has received claim
+  they support method 4 then this new method will be used:  The
+  consensus document is formed like before but a new last step removes
+  all routers from the listing that are not marked as Running.