[tor-talk] Client simulation

[Norman Danner]

I have two questions regarding a possible research project.

First, the research question:  can one use machine-learning techniques 
to construct a model of Tor client behavior?  Or in a more general form: 
  can one use <fill-in-the-blank> to construct a model of Tor client 
behavior?  A student of mine did some work on this over the last year, 
and the results are encouraging, though not strong enough to do anything 
with yet.

Second, the meta-question:  is it worthwhile to answer the first 
question?  It seems to me that if the answer to the first question is 
"yes," then the solution could be used to (at least) provide better 
simulations of Tor (e.g., via Shadow or ExperimenTor).  This possibly 
naive thought would imply that the answer to the second question is "yes."

I'd be interested to hear responses to my second question, either 
validating my naive thought or explaining why the first question isn't 
worth answering.  I'd accept responses to my first question, too, in 
case this has already been done.

	- Norman

-- 
Norman Danner - ndanner at wesleyan.edu - http://ndanner.web.wesleyan.edu
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science - Wesleyan University