From: Jim Choate <ravage@ssz.com>
Date: Sat, 27 Sep 1997 11:48:18 +0800
To: cypherpunks@ssz.com (Cypherpunks Distributed Remailer)
Subject: Re: Remailer latencies (fwd)
Message-ID: <199709270349.WAA14570@einstein.ssz.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text



Forwarded message:

> Date: Fri, 26 Sep 1997 17:32:14 -0600
> From: A Player To Be Named Later <aptbnl@dev.null>
> Subject: Re: Remailer latencies

> And, since you asked, would it not be in the interests of remailer
> operators to have a script which would generate random text, encrypt
> it to various remailers and send it out as 'cover traffic'?
> It would seem to me that this would be particularly valuable for the
> remailers that receive the least amount of traffic.

This aspect of traffic cover is more complex than it at first seems. Take
for example the second simplest model that I am aware of. For each email
that comes in n bogus emails go out with one remailed copy. So for each
email we receive we end up processing n+2 emails. Since to be useful n must
be reasonably larger than 2 to be effective we are left with a quandry. As
we process more traffic (ie become successful) we find our bandwidth need
growing at a linear rate of n, unfortunately the skills and resources to
support this increase also get larger as we become more successful.


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