Lenhard J., Loesing K., Wirtz G.; Performance Measurements of Tor Hidden Services in Low-Bandwidth Access Networks
Proc. International Conference on Applied Cryptography and Network Security (ACNS 09), 2.-5. June 2009, Paris-Rocquencourt (France),Download(413.5 KB, 18 Seiten)

Abstract — Being able to access and provide Internet services anonymously is an important mechanism to ensure freedom of speech in vast parts of the world. Offering location-hidden services on the Internet requires complex redirection protocols to obscure the locations and identities of communication partners. The anonymity system Tor supports such a protocol for providing and accessing TCP-based services anonymously. The complexity of the hidden service protocol results in significantly higher response times which is, however, a crucial barrier to user acceptance. This communication overhead becomes even more evident when using limited access networks like cellular phone networks. We provide comprehensive measurements and statistical analysis of the bootstrapping of client processes and different sub-steps of the Tor hidden service protocol under the influence of limited access networks. Thereby, we are able to identify bottlenecks for low-bandwidth access networks and to suggest improvements regarding these networks.

This material is presented to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work. Copyright and all rights therein are retained by authors or by other copyright holders. All persons copying this information are expected to adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author's copyright. In most cases, these works may not be reposted without the explicit permission of the copyright holder.

(c) 2009 Springer-Verlag. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the Springer-Verlag.