Covert-channel-resistant congestion control for traffic normalization in uncontrolled networks

Publikation: Beitrag in Buch/Konferenzbericht/Sammelband/GutachtenBeitrag in KonferenzbandBeigetragenBegutachtung

Beitragende

  • Martin Byrenheid - , Professur für Datenschutz und Datensicherheit (DD), Technische Universität Dresden (Autor:in)
  • Michael Rossberg - , Technische Universitat Ilmenau (Autor:in)
  • Guenter Schaefer - , Technische Universitat Ilmenau (Autor:in)
  • Robert Dorn - , secunet Security Networks AG (Autor:in)

Abstract

Traffic normalization, i.e. enforcing a constant stream of fixed-length packets, is a well-known measure to completely prevent attacks based on traffic analysis. In simple configurations, the enforced traffic rate can be statically configured by a human operator, but in large virtual private networks (VPNs) the traffic pattern of many connections may need to be adjusted whenever the overlay topology or the transport capacity of the underlying infrastructure changes. We propose a rate-based congestion control mechanism for automatic adjustment of traffic patterns that does not leak any information about the actual communication. Overly strong rate throttling in response to packet loss is avoided, as the control mechanism does not change the sending rate immediately when a packet loss was detected. Instead, an estimate of the current packet loss rate is obtained and the sending rate is adjusted proportionally. We evaluate our control scheme based on a measurement study in a local network testbed. The results indicate that the proposed approach avoids network congestion, enables protected TCP flows to achieve an increased goodput, and yet ensures appropriate traffic flow confidentiality.

Details

OriginalspracheEnglisch
Titel2017 IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC)
Herausgeber (Verlag)Wiley-IEEE Press
Seiten1-7
Seitenumfang7
ISBN (Print)978-1-4673-9000-2
PublikationsstatusVeröffentlicht - 25 Mai 2017
Peer-Review-StatusJa

Konferenz

Titel2017 IEEE International Conference on Communications
KurztitelIEEE ICC 2017
Dauer21 - 25 Mai 2017
StadtParis
LandFrankreich

Externe IDs

Scopus 85028357283

Schlagworte

Schlagwörter

  • Virtual private networks, Bandwidth, Logic gates, Packet loss, Cryptography