traffic anonymization, TOR, JAP, I2P, latency, round-trip time, transmission speed, www

The adverse aspect of anonymization is that the anonymized traffic is slower than normal. The study focused to describe the slowing down and to quantify its rate is presented in this article. The best known free anonymization tools were involved in the study, namely TOR, JAP and I2P. The set of files was formed and their download transmission speed was measured with and without use of anonymization. Also the set of webpages was formed where both latency and transmission speed were measured. All the measurements were done at the application layer. The final compar- ison showed that the TOR remains to be the best tool for anonymiza- tion despite the fact that JAP excelled in latency. The price paid for anonymization also remains to be quite high because it was confirmed that at least 90% transmission speed decrease is inseparable from using free anonymization tools.

The adverse aspect of anonymization is that the anonymized traffic is slower than normal. The study focused to describe the slowing down and to quantify its rate is presented in this article. The best known free anonymization tools were involved in the study, namely TOR, JAP and I2P. The set of files was formed and their download transmission speed was measured with and without use of anonymization. Also the set of webpages was formed where both latency and transmission speed were measured. All the measurements were done at the application layer. The final compar- ison showed that the TOR remains to be the best tool for anonymiza- tion despite the fact that JAP excelled in latency. The price paid for anonymization also remains to be quite high because it was confirmed that at least 90% transmission speed decrease is inseparable from using free anonymization tools.