A Game-Theoretic Approach to Anonymous Networking

—Anonymous wireless networking is studied when an adversary monitors the transmission timing of an unknown subset of the network nodes. For a desired quality of service (QoS), as measured by network throughput, the problem of maximizing anonymity is investigated from a game-theoretic perspective. Quantifying anonymity using conditional entropy of the routes given the adversary’s observation, the problem of optimizing anonymity is posed as a two-player zero-sum game between the network designer and the adversary: The task of the adversary is to choose a subset of nodes to monitor so that anonymity of routes is minimum, whereas the task of the network designer is to maximize anonymity by choosing a subset of nodes to evade flow detection by generating independent transmission schedules. In this two-player game, it is shown that a unique saddle-point equilibrium exists for a general category of finite networks. At the saddle point, the strategy of the network designer is to ensure t...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2012
• Where: TON
• Authors: Parvathinathan Venkitasubramaniam, Lang Tong
• Keywords: Conditional Entropy, Equilibrium Strategies, Performance Tradeoffs, Programming Languages, TON 2012