Test integration of Minion (out-of-order data transmission thing) with Tor relays
Bryan Ford has a small kernel patch, and larger openssl patch, to let TLS 1.2 receive data out-of-order and pass it to the application:
http://arxiv.org/abs/1103.0463
"""Internet applications increasingly employ TCP not as a stream abstraction, but as a substrate for application-level transports, a use that converts TCP's in-order semantics from a convenience blessing to a performance curse. As Internet evolution makes TCP's use as a substrate likely to grow, we offer Minion, an architecture for backward-compatible out-of-order delivery atop TCP and TLS. Small OS API extensions allow applications to manage TCP's send buffer and to receive TCP segments out-of-order. Atop these extensions, Minion builds application-level protocols offering true unordered datagram delivery, within streams preserving strict wire-compatibility with unsecured or TLS-secured TCP connections. Minion's protocols can run on unmodified TCP stacks, but benefit incrementally when either endpoint is upgraded, for a backward-compatible deployment path. Experiments suggest that Minion can noticeably improve the performance of applications such as conferencing, virtual private networking, and web browsing, while incurring minimal CPU or bandwidth costs."""
I know that we've got TLS 1.2 disabled currently, but this sounds like the sort of project that one of our fast relay operators might want to play with to see how easy it is.