On 10/17/19, coderman <coderman@protonmail.com> wrote:
There are many, many analogies you can draw about a network of this type to an ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) network.
i'm old enough to remember writing XTI/STREAMS code for ATM networks. (blast from the past!)
ATM CBR SVCs would be a perfect fit for padding schemes, if they existed for consumer use :)
Telco generated clocked TDM bucket brigades... Suggested for years overlays can still emulate them to good use... full time chaff padding fill all node-to-node links at negotiated maintained rates, displace chaff with wheat as it comes in, reclock and enforce the line contracts, keying, etc at the switchports (overlay nodes). *VC padding requires lots of management overhead and signaling between layers in overlay net to avoid user traffic saturating paths, finding bw routes, etc, forget that. Chaff fill at node-to-node link layer is easier... just as physical link crypto over fulltime fill works in background between switchports (there are proposals for ethernet to do this, embedded PHY instead of aftermarket anti-SPY gadget). Nodes already know what other nodes the upper layer wants to talk to, so they nego fill with them before swapping out lower fill for upper wheat on demand. Tor-like circuit extends in upper layer still works. User traffic in upper layers rides happy till users fill their own circuits they provisioned into the net, no different than tor or any other overlay today.