GAT-LA: Graph Attention-Based Locality-Aware Sampling for Modeling the Dynamic Evolution of I2P Routing Topologies

Anonymous communication networks such as the Invisible Internet Project (I2P) are essential for safeguarding privacy and ensuring freedom of expression, necessitating robust performance and security evaluation in controlled environments. Network testbeds offer a reliable alternative to real-world testing. This paper proposes a dynamic modeling framework based on Graph Attention Network (GAT). We introduce a Region-Centric Initialization (RCI) strategy to establish an initial observation anchor, followed by a GAT-based Locality-Aware (GAT-LA) sampling mechanism that treats representative node selection as a dynamic learning task. Experimental results demonstrate that the GAT-LA mechanism significantly outperforms static methods in maintaining long-term similarity to real-world I2P performance metrics. The integrated stability penalty mechanism effectively suppresses excessive topological fluctuations, ensuring temporal smoothness across evolutionary cycles. Furthermore, the RCI strategy provides high engineering flexibility by supporting both automated scoring and target-oriented manual configuration. This paper presents a scalable methodology for dynamic network simulation with enhanced statistical alignment, providing a practical reference for security research within resource-constrained anonymous network ranges or testbeds.