Client requirement based path selection algorithm for Tor network

In Tor network, the relays run by volunteers are non-uniform in nature, mainly with respect to the bandwidths of the relay. Browsing with Tor is often slow due to the design where the path taken from client to server is not the shortest path but ensures that it is secure in such a way that user's anonymity is maintained. Due to this, speed and anonymity is inversely proportional in the Tor network. Furthermore, since Tor uses circuits with relays in different geographical locations, it makes the connection further protracted. With so many factors affecting the performance, there is a need to improve on the current functionalities and contribute to low latency, anonymous browsing. In this paper, we try to enhance the speed of the client's browsing by segregating the relays based on their derived bandwidth as given in the consensus file and selecting path for clients based on their requirement. We discard some of the relays which are below the 12.5 percentile of all the valid relays while creating circuits for clients with high bandwidth requirement. Based on the simulations that we ran on Shadow Simulator, we have observed that, in our proposed algorithm, we are ensuring that low bandwidth relays are not congested with connection from clients with high bandwidth requirement. This has improved the low bandwidth client speed significantly. In our simulations, we also observe that there is no compromise in anonymity in our proposed algorithm.