About Measurement Lab

Measurement Lab (M-Lab) is an open, distributed server platform provided to researchers to deploy Internet measurement tools. The data collected by those tools is released in the public domain. The goal of M-Lab is to advance network research and empower the public with useful information about their broadband and mobile connections. By enhancing Internet transparency, M-Lab helps sustain a healthy, innovative Internet.

When an Internet application doesn't work as expected, how can you tell whether the problem is caused by your connection, the application or something else? It can be very difficult for professional network administrators, let alone average Internet users, to answer this sort of question today. Transparency has always been an essential component of the Internet's success, and Internet users deserve to be well-informed about the performance of their broadband connections. For that to happen, researchers need resources to develop new analytical tools.

That's where M-Lab comes in.

Tools for Internet users

Many researchers are already developing tools that allow users to test their network connections by briefly communicating with a server elsewhere on the Internet. The M-Lab platform supports the development of these measurement tools.

An open platform for researchers

M-Lab assists scientific research by providing widely-distributed servers and ample connectivity for researchers' use. Each tool will be allocated dedicated resources on the M-Lab platform to facilitate accurate measurements. Server-side tools will be openly licensed and operated to allow third-parties to develop their own client-side measurement software.

Better, open data for everyone

All data collected via M-Lab will be made available to the research community to allow researchers to build on a common pool of network measurement data.

Who is M-Lab?

M-Lab is a collaborative effort led by researchers in partnership with companies and other institutions. M-Lab depends on the active support of additional partners, and we welcome input from anyone interested in helping the platform flourish. For more information, read this introduction to Measurement Lab and invitation to the research community to get involved, in the June ACM's Computer Communication Review available here.