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Anonymous communication in overlay networks

  1. Jian Ren1,*,
  2. Yun Li2,
  3. Tingting Jiang3,
  4. Tongtong Li1

Article first published online: 29 MAR 2012

DOI: 10.1002/sec.539

Additional Information

How to Cite

Ren, J., Li, Y., Jiang, T. and Li, T. (2012), Anonymous communication in overlay networks. Security Comm. Networks. doi: 10.1002/sec.539

Author Information

  1. 1

    Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, U.S.A.

  2. 2

    Microsoft, Redmond, WA, U.S.A.

  3. 3

    Department of Computer Science, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, U.S.A.

*Jian Ren (GE), Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 95134, U.S.A.
E-mail: renjian@egr.msu.edu

Publication History

  1. Article first published online: 29 MAR 2012
  2. Manuscript Accepted: 27 JAN 2012
  3. Manuscript Revised: 26 JAN 2012
  4. Manuscript Received: 31 OCT 2011

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Keywords:

  • communication anonymity;
  • source anonymous message authentication code;
  • unconditional security;
  • sender anonymity;
  • recipient anonymity;
  • location privacy;
  • overlay network

ABSTRACT

Communication anonymity is becoming an increasingly important, or even indispensable, security requirement for many applications. The existing research in anonymous communications can largely be divided into two categories: mix-based systems and secure multiparty computation-based systems, originating from mixnet and DC-net, respectively. However, they either cannot provide provable anonymity or suffer from transmission collision problem. In this paper, we first propose a novel unconditionally secure source anonymous message authentication code that can be applied to any messages without relying on any trusted third parties. While ensuring message sender anonymity, secure source anonymous message authentication code can also provide message content authenticity. We then propose a novel communication protocol that can hide the senders and the recipients from each other and thus can be used for secure file sharing. The security analysis demonstrates that the proposed protocol is secure against various attacks. Our analysis also shows that it is efficient and practical. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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