## Responsibilities of Mix Operators

This text explains what a cascade is and how to get your Mix into one.

### Cascade architectures (static or dynamic)

In order to be able to forward and anonymize user web traffic, each Mix server must be part of exactly one Mix cascade. The interconnection between the Mixes is either static or dynamic. In a static cascade each Mix is configured to listen on a certain port for incoming data from it's previous Mix (or the JAP clients in case of being the first Mix). On the other hand, each Mix has to know how to connect to the following Mix (or the web-proxy in case of being the last Mix). So the host name and the port of the following Mix are needed. You get them from the next Mix' Operator, for example by e-mail.

In a dynamic cascade (that feature is not available yet but in preparation) the Mixes have no static configuration, but may automatically get their connection information about their next Mix from the InfoService.

### Planning a cascade

Initially it has to be clear with whom else and how a Mix cascade will be set up. First it's important to have fast data interconnections between the partners of a cascade. You might want to check the connections by ping and traceroutes (if you do not know what this is, it might be better that you do not run a Mix). If you are cannot others any partners or you maybe just need one more participant, you can write an e-mail to the TU Dresden, to the JonDos GmbH or to the German Privacy Foundation. They will try to find other willing Operators or will, themselves, run a Mix server. In any case it's necessary that the partners of a cascade coordinate with each other so that finally a working cascade can be set up properly.