Simulation of tightrope algorithm on shadow simulator

Abstract

During this project, we implemented a load balancing algorithm by modifying the Tor source code and ran the load balancing algorithm in a simulation tool called Shadow. Tor, the open-source software designed for anonymity and privacy, uses random path selection based on bandwidth, and this results in a load-balancing problem. We implemented the max-min-fair algorithm called tightrope by modifying Tor source code. Then we ran the algorithm on Shadow simulator to simulate multiple relays, servers and clients. The results show that the tightrope algorithm outperforms the original algorithm in bandwidth, and under this simulation, both the tightrope algorithm and the original algorithm show a greater portion of low-bandwidth circuits and high-bandwidth circuits than the Python simulation.