[Sks-devel] sks-keyservers.net: New inclusion criteria for pool

[Kristian Fiskerstrand]

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Dear all,

As previously discussed on this list, and listed as issue 5 in the
tracker[0], a more dynamic approach to inclusion in the server pool is
favorable to the current approach of difference to a reference
keyserver (currently keys.kfwebs.net).

I've finally gotten around to playing a bit with this, and today
committed a change as revision r86[1]. The process, as it stands now
is as follows.

Pass 1: Calculate the mean and standard deviation of all servers found
to be online on HKP and have more keys than 3 million (sks is
add-only, and we know this point is passed). This results in :
Numkey set to    3064847.4236372 based on mean - 0.5 *  10048.894104989

Pass 2: Exclude all servers that have less keys than 1 stddev away as
calculated in pass 1, calculate new mean and stddev and then exclude
all servers with less keys than 0.5 stddev away from mean. This
results in
Numkey set to    3070944.3992914 based on mean - 0.5 *  1453.4176334218

I've added some more information to the status page[2], which
currently reads (note, lower bound has a slight discrepancy to the
numkey of pass 2 due to different run between debug and production):
Lower bound of keys:    3070937
Mean:   3071671
Max difference: 733

The primary advantage of this change, is of course that the pool isn't
dependent on a single keyserver anymore to function. Also, it should
handle larger key jiffers e.g. in events of a keyserver starting to
synchronize again and contributing larger number of keys than average.

Comments are, as usual, appreciated.

[0] http://code.google.com/p/sks-keyservers-pool/issues/detail?id=5
[1] http://code.google.com/p/sks-keyservers-pool/source/detail?r=86
[2] http://sks-keyservers.net/status/
- -- 
- ----------------------------
Kristian Fiskerstrand
http://www.sumptuouscapital.com
Twitter: @krifisk
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Corruptissima re publica plurimæ leges
The greater the degeneration of the republic, the more of its laws
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