Performance analysis of a method for high level prevention of traffic analysis

One of the stated goals of communications security is the prevention of traffic analysis. A model to prevent traffic analysis by rerouting and padding the traffic matrix, so that the apparent final traffic matrix is neutral, is analyzed. The objective of this analysis is to justify the claims of the model and to show that rerouting of traffic via intermediate nodes with minimum padding is indeed a cost effective method to prevent traffic analysis. Simulation results supporting the above claim are also presented. The requirement that final traffic matrix be neutral may be too restrictive in some cases, and various modifications to the model are suggested, while still ensuring prevention of traffic analysis. Prevention of traffic analysis in real time is addressed briefly