SHALON: Lightweight Anonymization Based on Open Standards

In this paper, we introduce a novel lightweight anonymization technique called Shalon. It is based on onion routing, aims to reduce complexity, and delivers high bandwidth. We have, compared to the widely known approach Tor, slightly reduced the level of security in favor for greatly increased performance. The most significant advantage compared to other approaches is that Shalon is fully based on standardized protocols, which makes our approach highly efficient and easy to deploy. It also makes Shalon easier to understand for normal users, eases protocol reviews, and increases the chance of having several implementations of Shalon available. In this work, we provide a description of the design and implementation of Shalon, a performance and anonymity analysis, and a discussion on the scalability properties.