Improving anonymity networks via end-to-end design
Linda Jean Camp, Camilo H. Viecco · 2011
On the Internet, link-resistant communication is only possible through the use of anonymous communication systems. Since the late 1990's many anonymous communication systems have been designed and deployed for use on the Internet. However, the performance of these systems is very low. In particular for the Tor network, the current state of the art anonymity system, latency of communications is not only high but also highly variable. In this thesis we argue that current anonymity systems, as implemented, unnecessarily sacrifice performance for anonymity. By implementing subtle changes to the system architecture, it is possible to achieve anonymous communication in addition to good performance. We demonstrate, via implementation and measurements, that by using end-to-end design principles in anonymity systems it is possible to implement many desired anonymity properties while significantly increasing network performance.