Routing through the Mist: Design and Implementation

* Jalal Al-Muhtadi is funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation, NSF CCR 0086094 ITR. ∇ These authors are supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, NSF CCR 00-86094 ITR, NSF EIA 98-70736, NSF EIA 99-72884 EQ, and NSF CCR 00-86094. † Apu Kapadia is funded by the Department of Energy High Performance Computer Science Fellowship through Los Alamos National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratories. ABSTRACT Ubiquitous computing is poised to revolutionize the way we compute and interact with each other. However, unless privacy concerns are taken into account early in the design process, we will end up creating a very effective distributed surveillance system, which would be a dream come true for electronic stalkers and “big brothers.” We present a protocol, which preserves the privacy of users and keeps their communication anonymous. In effect, we create a “mist” that conceals users from the system and other users. Yet, users will still be able to enjoy seamless interaction with services and other entities that wander within the ubiquitous computing environment. This report motivates our work, describes our approach, and details Mist’s design and implementation.