The present invention relates generally to computing networks and relates more particularly to anonymous data transfers between computing devices.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a network 100 of nodes (e.g., computing devices) interacting in a peer-to-peer (P2P) manner. Generally, a requesting node 101 sends a search message 105 (e.g., containing keywords relating to data that the requesting node 101 wishes to locate) to one or more intermediate network nodes 111 connected to the requesting node 101. Each intermediate node 111 receives the search message 105 and then forwards the search message 105 to one or more additional nodes 111. Eventually, the search message 105 reaches one or more responding nodes 103 having the requested data. One or more responding nodes 103 then send a response message 107 back to the requesting node 101, e.g., via the intermediate nodes 111. The requesting node 101 then requests the relevant data from a responding node 103 by connecting directly to the responding node 103, e.g., via direct connection 109.
In conventional P2P systems, both the requesting node 101 and the responding node 103 are aware of the other's identity such that one node has some unique information about the other node (e.g., a network address). Intermediate nodes may likewise be aware of the identities of the requesting node 101 and/or the responding node 103, depending on what type of identification is contained within the search and response messages 105 and 107. In many instances, however, one or both of the requesting node 101 and the responding node 103 may not wish to have their identities known to other nodes. Unfortunately, most conventional anonymous transfer methods, such as static anonymizing services, may be easily compromised, revealing the identities of transferring parties and/or causing a denial of service. Other methods for preserving the identity of the transferring parties typically involve encrypting the transferred files such that their contents are unknown. However, searching content using standard text for file names becomes impractical, and users typically must know specific public keys for desired data, making key distribution a network bottleneck. Moreover, most typical methods for establishing anonymous data transfer paths between two nodes do not provide a way for re-establishing the anonymous path should the connection between the two nodes be broken (e.g., due to a compromised path or to failure of a node on the path).
Thus, there is a need in the art for a method and apparatus for re-establishing anonymous data transfers.