1,061 research outputs found
Towards Provably Invisible Network Flow Fingerprints
Network traffic analysis reveals important information even when messages are
encrypted. We consider active traffic analysis via flow fingerprinting by
invisibly embedding information into packet timings of flows. In particular,
assume Alice wishes to embed fingerprints into flows of a set of network input
links, whose packet timings are modeled by Poisson processes, without being
detected by a watchful adversary Willie. Bob, who receives the set of
fingerprinted flows after they pass through the network modeled as a collection
of independent and parallel queues, wishes to extract Alice's embedded
fingerprints to infer the connection between input and output links of the
network. We consider two scenarios: 1) Alice embeds fingerprints in all of the
flows; 2) Alice embeds fingerprints in each flow independently with probability
. Assuming that the flow rates are equal, we calculate the maximum number of
flows in which Alice can invisibly embed fingerprints while having those
fingerprints successfully decoded by Bob. Then, we extend the construction and
analysis to the case where flow rates are distinct, and discuss the extension
of the network model
Bits Through Bufferless Queues
This paper investigates the capacity of a channel in which information is
conveyed by the timing of consecutive packets passing through a queue with
independent and identically distributed service times. Such timing channels are
commonly studied under the assumption of a work-conserving queue. In contrast,
this paper studies the case of a bufferless queue that drops arriving packets
while a packet is in service. Under this bufferless model, the paper provides
upper bounds on the capacity of timing channels and establishes achievable
rates for the case of bufferless M/M/1 and M/G/1 queues. In particular, it is
shown that a bufferless M/M/1 queue at worst suffers less than 10% reduction in
capacity when compared to an M/M/1 work-conserving queue.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, accepted in 51st Annual Allerton Conference on
Communication, Control, and Computing, University of Illinois, Monticello,
Illinois, Oct 2-4, 201
Anonymous Networking amidst Eavesdroppers
The problem of security against timing based traffic analysis in wireless
networks is considered in this work. An analytical measure of anonymity in
eavesdropped networks is proposed using the information theoretic concept of
equivocation. For a physical layer with orthogonal transmitter directed
signaling, scheduling and relaying techniques are designed to maximize
achievable network performance for any given level of anonymity. The network
performance is measured by the achievable relay rates from the sources to
destinations under latency and medium access constraints. In particular,
analytical results are presented for two scenarios:
For a two-hop network with maximum anonymity, achievable rate regions for a
general m x 1 relay are characterized when nodes generate independent Poisson
transmission schedules. The rate regions are presented for both strict and
average delay constraints on traffic flow through the relay.
For a multihop network with an arbitrary anonymity requirement, the problem
of maximizing the sum-rate of flows (network throughput) is considered. A
selective independent scheduling strategy is designed for this purpose, and
using the analytical results for the two-hop network, the achievable throughput
is characterized as a function of the anonymity level. The throughput-anonymity
relation for the proposed strategy is shown to be equivalent to an information
theoretic rate-distortion function
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