93 Gb/s

HORNET: High-speed Onion Routing at the Network Layer

We present HORNET, a system that enables high-speed end-to-end

anonymous channels by leveraging next generation network archi-

tectures. HORNET is designed as a low-latency onion routing sys-

tem that operates at the network layer thus enabling a wide range

of applications. Our system uses only symmetric cryptography

for data forwarding yet requires no per-flow state on intermediate

nodes. This design enables HORNET nodes to process anonymous

traffic at over 93 Gb/s. HORNET can also scale as required, adding

minimal processing overhead per additional anonymous channel.

We discuss design and implementation details, as well as a perfor-

mance and security evaluation.