What is onion routing?
Channel: internet-class
Date: 2016-09-08

Routing is a fundamentally public activity. Core internet routers can see both where the packet is going and where it came from. Even if the contents are encrypted, in certain cases it is dangerous to even expose that two computers on the internet are communicating with each other. One solution is known as onion routing. In onion routing, the structure of the messages combined with clever encryption allow routers to only know the previous and next hops—​but not the source or the final destination.

Credits: Talking: Geoffrey Challen (Assistant Professor, Computer Science and Engineering, University at Buffalo). Producing: Greg Bunyea (Undergraduate, Computer Science and Engineering, University at Buffalo).

Part of the https://www.internet-class.org online internet course. A blue Systems Research Group (https://blue.cse.buffalo.edu) production.