Two Papers at LCN 2024

We are happy to announce that two of our latest research papers have been accepted for publication and presentation at the IEEE LCN 2024. The accepted papers are:

• Plausibly Deniable Content Discovery for Bitswap Using Random Walks. Manuel Wedler (Humboldt-University of Berlin, Germany); Erik Daniel (Technische Universität Dresden, Germany); Florian Tschorsch (TU Dresden, Germany)
   

  Abstract: Bitswap is the data exchange protocol for the content-addressed peer-to-peer overlay network IPFS. During content discovery, Bitswap reveals the interest of a peer in content to all neighbors, enabling the tracking of user interests. In our paper, we propose a modification of the Bitswap protocol, which enables source obfuscation using proxies for content discovery. The proxies are selected via a random-walk. Enabling content discovery through proxies introduces plausible deniability. We evaluate the protocol modification with a simulation. The protocol modification demonstrates enhanced privacy, while maintaining acceptable performance levels.
   

• Detecting Important Network Changes in BFT Protocols with Star-Based Communication (StarReact). Martin Nischwitz and Marko Esche (Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, Germany); Florian Tschorsch (TU Dresden, Germany)

  
  Abstract: Threshold signatures have improved the scalability of BFT protocols by replacing all-to-all broadcast with star-based communication. On the flip side, this approach renders network re-organization and performance optimization more costly, because information can only be exchanged between the leader and all other nodes.We present StarReact,an extension for BFT protocols that relies on star-based communication to collect and disseminate quorum certificates. This extension allows all nodes of the system to measure and evaluate the network state by monitoring the messages disseminated by the leader. Each node decides independently if performance degradation justifies a leader change. By deploying a median filter, the measured commit latency of the system is evaluated by each node to determine if a network change has a lasting effect that warrants a change in leadership or should be ignored. We showcase how StarReact is able to identify important network changes for different deployment scenarios and explain how view change executions should be adapted to different environments to improve commit latency and potentially throughput for such systems.