We investigate an understudied threat:
networks of stealthy routers (S-Routers)
, relaying messages to a hidden
destination
. The S-Routers relay communication along a path of multiple short-range, low-energy hops, to avoid remote localization by triangulation. Mobile devices called
Interceptors
can detect communication by an S-Router, but only when the Interceptor is next to the transmitting S-Router. We examine algorithms for a set of mobile Interceptors to find the
destination
of the communication relayed by the S-Routers. The algorithms are compared according to the number of
communicating rounds
before the
destination
is found, i.e., rounds in which data is transmitted from the source to the
destination
. We evaluate the algorithms analytically and using simulations, including against a parametric, optimized strategy for the S-Routers. Our main result is an Interceptors algorithm that bounds the expected number of
communicating rounds
by a term quasilinear in the number of S-Routers. For the case where S-Routers transmit at every round (“continuously”), we present an algorithm that improves this bound.
Technical characteristics of the relay communication satellite “Queqiao” for Chang’e-4 lunar farside exploration mission
