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Tor project promises to eliminate speed limits on the network with new system

A new system called Congestion Control, which has been in operation since last week, promises to eliminate speed limits on the Tor network, that is, to offer faster browsing. Users can find the update at version 0.4.7.7 of the Tor Protocol, the latest stable release has been available since May 4th.

The project’s maintainers say that CC “will result in significant performance improvements for Tor, as well as greater utilization of our network capacity.”

Image: Tor

What is Tor and how does it work?

Tor (short for The Onion Router) is a network that uses the layering method, in which traffic is distributed and rebounds along randomly generated paths from one Tor server to another, with the aim of replacing identity as the source of a communication. by the last Tor server in the ever-changing chain.

By relaying and three times encrypting the traffic that crosses the network, hiding the real location of users and their respective browsing interests, the project’s mission is the privacy and anonymity of those who use it to browse the internet.

As it is a network made up of thousands of servers operated by volunteers, browsing speed is one of the disadvantages of this system, hampered by traffic congestion in the Tor network nodes and in queues at exit relays.

Regulating traffic congestion on a Tor network is a challenge without compromising privacy protection mechanisms, as onion routing circuit encryption cannot support dropped packets or reordering. For this reason, the research community has spent nearly two decades looking for a way to provide congestion control.

The result of this deadlock is the three algorithms that collectively help reduce memory consumption and stabilize and minimize queue delay and latency — Tor-Westwood, Tor-Vegas, and Tor-NOLA.

  • Tor Westwood – minimizes packet loss in large pipelines.
  • Tor-Vegas – estimates queue length and introduces balancing elements.
  • Tor-NOLA – works as a bandwidth delay estimator.

Implementation results

In comparative simulations with versions 0.4.6 and 0.4.7, the Tor project found that the results across the board with smoother and improved browsing, free of speed limitations and bottlenecks, without adding any load on edge latency. the tip.

Tor project promises to eliminate speed limits on the network with new system

Image: Tor

However, for the community to benefit from the improvements, it is necessary for exit relay operators to update to version 0.4.7 of the Tor protocol. Operators of internal Tor nodes will have to set bandwidth limits, as patterns and traffic will change as CC is expected to use the relays at full capacity.

Although the first results are already remarkable, the increase in network performance for everyone will be more apparent the more customers upgrade to the version 0.4.7 (or later). “As our network is approximately 25% utilized, we expect throughput to be very high for early adopters using 0.4.7 on fast circuits with 0.4.7 fast outputs to the point where most customers have upgraded. At that point, a new balance will be reached in terms of throughput and network utilization.” explains the Tor Project.

Tor project promises to eliminate speed limits on the network with new system

Increased relay bandwidth advertised. Image: Tor

“For this reason, we are delaying the release of a Tor Browser Stable with congestion control until enough outputs have been updated to make the experience more seamless. We expect this to happen by May 31,” he added.

The project said that for the next stable release, version 0.4.8, it should come with a traffic-splitting mechanism, further improving network speeds.

Via BleepingComputer

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