Almost all networks at present are based on users' unique identity which is verified by the network server for other members of the network when one logs in. Such a system is useful because it is relatively simple.
But, the new network system developed by researchers at the University of Texas at Austin is based on an addressing system associated with an unlimited, user-selected list of pseudonyms.
Writing in the International Journal of Security and Networks, Mohamed Gouda and colleagues said that the network authority server is then the only party, other than each user that knows their address and which of their pool of pseudonyms is associated with the address at any given time.
"The problem of anonymous communication over a network is an old and respected problem, and has inspired a considerable amount of research," the researchers explained.
Papers dating back to at least 1981 have attempted to address this issue. Anonymised email based on encryption and the layered connection approach of the Tor protocol, and Onion routing, have been used successfully over the last couple of decades.
However, all of these approaches have scaling problems that limit the number of concurrent users without huge investment in network servers to carry the requisite data traffic.
The researchers explained that in their novel network structure users do not have identities. Users are contacted by searching for their pseudonyms, which they change frequently.
Authentication is done by the users themselves, not by the certification of a central authority. In this network, as there is no identity, there is no identity theft, they said.
"We suggest that this may be a whole new kind of network, distinct from both traditional client-server and reputation based peer-to-peer networks," they added.
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