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Chapters/Introduction.tex
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\label{Introduction}
TODO
Peer-to-peer overlay VPNs promise to restore genuine decentralization
by enabling direct connectivity between nodes regardless of NAT or
firewall restrictions. Yet practitioners choosing among the growing
number of mesh VPN implementations must rely largely on anecdotal
evidence: systematic, reproducible comparisons under realistic
conditions are scarce.
\subsection{Motivation}
This thesis addresses that gap. We benchmark ten peer-to-peer VPN
implementations across seven workloads and four network impairment
profiles, yielding over 300 unique measurements. We complement these
performance benchmarks with a source code analysis of each
implementation, verified through direct engagement with the respective
maintainers. The entire experimental framework is built on Nix, NixOS,
and the Clan deployment system, making every result independently
reproducible.
\section{Motivation}
Peer-to-peer architectures promise censorship-resistant, fault-tolerant
infrastructure by eliminating single points of failure
@@ -176,13 +190,39 @@ in pursuit of top rankings.
\label{fig:vision-stages}
\end{figure}
\subsection{Research Contribution}
\section{Research Contribution}
TODO
This thesis makes the following contributions:
\subsection{Related Work}
\begin{enumerate}
\item A comprehensive benchmark of ten peer-to-peer VPN
implementations across seven workloads. Including real-world
video streaming and package downloads; and four network
impairment profiles, producing over 300 unique measurements.
\item A source code analysis of all ten VPN implementations,
combining manual code review with LLM-assisted analysis,
followed by verification through direct engagement with the
respective maintainers on GitHub.
\item A fully reproducible experimental framework built on
Nix, NixOS, and the Clan deployment system, with pinned
dependencies, declarative system configuration, and
deterministic cryptographic material generation, enabling
independent replication of all results.
\item A performance analysis demonstrating that Tailscale
outperforms the Linux kernel's default networking stack under
degraded conditions, and that kernel parameter tuning; Reno
congestion control in place of CUBIC, with RACK
disabled; yields measurable throughput improvements.
\item The discovery of several security vulnerabilities across
the evaluated VPN implementations.
\item An automated benchmarking framework designed for public
leaderboard generation, intended to encourage ongoing
optimization by VPN developers.
\end{enumerate}
\subsubsection{A Comparative Study on Virtual Private Networks}
\section{Related Work}
\subsection{A Comparative Study on Virtual Private Networks}
Lackorzynski et al.\ \cite{lackorzynski_comparative_2019} evaluate
VPN protocols in the context of industrial communication systems (Industry 4.0),
@@ -192,7 +232,7 @@ latency, and CPU overhead; rather than overlay network behavior.
In contrast, this thesis evaluates VPNs that provide a full data plane
with peer-to-peer connectivity, NAT traversal, and dynamic peer discovery.
\subsubsection{Full-Mesh VPN Performance Evaluation}
\subsection{Full-Mesh VPN Performance Evaluation}
Kjorveziroski et al.\ \cite{kjorveziroski_full-mesh_2024} provide a
comprehensive evaluation of full-mesh VPN solutions for distributed
@@ -210,5 +250,5 @@ This thesis extends their work in several ways:
\item Fully reproducible experimental framework via Nix/NixOS/Clan
\end{itemize}
\subsubsection{Performance Evaluation of TCP over QUIC Tunnels}
\subsection{Performance Evaluation of TCP over QUIC Tunnels}
TODO \cite{guo_implementation_2025}