SaTor: Exploring Satellite Routing in Tor to Reduce Latency

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Li, Haozhi, Elahi, Tariq
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2024
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author Li, Haozhi
Elahi, Tariq
author_facet Li, Haozhi
Elahi, Tariq
contents High latency is a critical limitation within the Tor network that has a negative impact on web application responsiveness. A key factor exacerbating Tor latency is the creation of lengthy circuits that span across geographically distant regions, causing significant transmission delays. A common solution involves modifying Tor's circuit-building process to reduce the likelihood of selecting lengthy circuits. However, this strategy compromises Tor's routing randomness, increasing the risk of deanonymization. Reducing Tor's latency while minimizing security degradation presents a challenge. This paper proposes and investigates SaTor, a satellite-assisted routing scheme to reduce Tor latency. By equipping Tor relays with satellite network access, SaTor could accelerate slow circuits via satellite transmission, without biasing the existing path selection process. Our performance evaluation, using a simulator we developed along with real-world measurements, shows that over the long term, SaTor provides an expected speed-up of 21.8 ms for over 40% of circuits, with only 100 top relays equipped with satellite service. Our research uncovers a viable way to overcome Tor's latency bottleneck, serving as a practical reference for its future enhancement.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2406_15055
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle SaTor: Exploring Satellite Routing in Tor to Reduce Latency
Li, Haozhi
Elahi, Tariq
Cryptography and Security
High latency is a critical limitation within the Tor network that has a negative impact on web application responsiveness. A key factor exacerbating Tor latency is the creation of lengthy circuits that span across geographically distant regions, causing significant transmission delays. A common solution involves modifying Tor's circuit-building process to reduce the likelihood of selecting lengthy circuits. However, this strategy compromises Tor's routing randomness, increasing the risk of deanonymization. Reducing Tor's latency while minimizing security degradation presents a challenge. This paper proposes and investigates SaTor, a satellite-assisted routing scheme to reduce Tor latency. By equipping Tor relays with satellite network access, SaTor could accelerate slow circuits via satellite transmission, without biasing the existing path selection process. Our performance evaluation, using a simulator we developed along with real-world measurements, shows that over the long term, SaTor provides an expected speed-up of 21.8 ms for over 40% of circuits, with only 100 top relays equipped with satellite service. Our research uncovers a viable way to overcome Tor's latency bottleneck, serving as a practical reference for its future enhancement.
title SaTor: Exploring Satellite Routing in Tor to Reduce Latency
topic Cryptography and Security
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.15055