Secure Portable Access Point for Anonymous Communications

Abstract

Described are the capabilities and design of a VPN and Tor-enabled portable access point(PAP). The access point is designed on-top of open-source software that connects a client’s personal device (e.g. a smartphone or laptop) to an otherwise unsafe public WiFi network. The device is built with a Raspberry Pi 4B and has a touchscreen GUI that allows a user to toggle services and offers flexibility in its configuration. Multiple users can connect to the device, with each user . Network bandwidth was shown to be around 27Mbits per second and nearly 10Mbits per second with the VPN enabled. Battery life for the device hovered around 4 hours among a variety of different usage cases. There is room for improvement on the battery life by implementing energy saving features or doing away with the touchscreen in favor for a captive portal.