Internet Service Providers to Acquire a New Tool for Traffic Throttling

It’s an ongoing battle between savvy Internet users who constantly search for ways to circumvent speed controls made by Internet service providers and the latter who make on regular basis attempts to interfere with some specific traffic on their networks.

ISPs might be in for some treat as Italian engineers have come up with a study revealing statistical methods providers like Bell and Rogers can employ to shape internet traffic even if the content is encrypted. This team of Italian researchers from the University of Brescia has discovered a technique that allows this type of "hidden" file-sharing to be detected with up to 90 per cent precision.

The name of this technique is statistical fingerprinting. Apparently it has the ability to establish with 99 per cent accuracy when internet users are attempting to cover their tracks within an encrypted channel; it can also make an 89 per cent precise prediction whether the controlled program in question is a p2p file-sharing application.

Part of the new technique is concerned with gauging the size and frequency of the discrete "packets" of data that a file-sharing program transmits over, and gets back from, the Internet. Although users come up with various methods to conceal the content of these packets, the method makes use of a specific signature embedded in the packets to differentiate them from other sorts of traffic.

"The experimental results we obtained are very promising. First and foremost, virtually no legitimate traffic is blocked by our mechanism," said the Brescia researchers. "Second, and equally important, the vast majority of [illegitimate] traffic is blocked by the mechanism."

If the method proves to be successful ISPs will benefit from another tool to help them shape Internet traffic on their liking.