Having the M-Lab data openly available to everybody has allowed developers and researchers to create visualizations of those data. This page lists some of these visualizations. If you are aware of other visualizations using the M-Lab data, contact the M-Lab team at http://measurementlab.net/contact.

Broadband performance statistics using NDT data

The charts presented in this section visualize various metrics computed using the data collected by NDT, one of the M-Lab tools. You can find a detailed description of how the aggregated statistics are computed at https://code.google.com/p/m-lab/wiki/PDEChartsNDT.

The charts present the following metrics:

• Download throughput
• Upload thoughput
• Round trip time (RTT)
• Packet retransmission
• Network- VS client-limited tests
• Average receiver window scale
• Number of tests

The metrics are aggregated by

• Geography: country -> region (state in the US) -> city
• Internet Service Provider (ISP)
• Vantage point (i.e., M-Lab site)

A chart can visualize one or more metrics at different levels of aggregations at the same time. Below there are a few examples on how metrics and aggregation criteria can be combined to provide interesting visualizations.

Instructions (that apply to all the charts in this section)

• Select “Explore data” on the map for more visualization options.
• You can change the month displayed by adjusting the sliding bar at the bottom of the chart.
• You can change the location displayed by clicking the arrow in the “Compare” box (top-left), and selecting any country, state, or city. In some charts, you can compare data from multiple locations at the same time, also at different levels of aggregation. (For example, you can compare data from the United Kindom with data from San Francisco).
• You can compare different ISPs within the same country, region (state in the US), and city, by clicking the arrow in the “Compare” box (top-left), and selecting any ISP. In some charts, you can compare data from multiple ISPs at the same time, at different levels of aggregations. (For example, you can compare ISP X at the national level with ISP X or ISP Y within a specific city of the same or of a different country.)
• You can choose the vantage point and only visualize data coming from a single M-Lab site, by clicking the arrow in the "Location" box (bottom-left) and select an M-Lab site.
• You can select different chart types, by selecting one of the icons above the chart (top-right).

A few notes to keep in mind when exploring the charts in this section

• The visualizations do not take account explicitly for differences in service tiers and technologies (e.g., ADSL vs Cable). 
  Whether or not an ISP is delivering the service advertised within a specific tier is not reflected here; an ISP that is delivering good service to customers at a low service tier may rank lower than an ISP delivering poor service to customers at a high service tier.
• Different speed tests measure network speed in different ways, producing some variations in reported results. NDT is an open-source tool and you can look at the source code and documentation to understand in detail how NDT measures network speed.
• Server proximity can impact the accuracy of measured results. Being far from a testing server can results in lower values of measured speed. 
• Any location with insufficient data (fewer than 200 unique client IP addresses conducting measurements) is not visualized and its name is grayed out in the charts' menus.
• For more details, see https://code.google.com/p/m-lab/wiki/PDEChartsNDT.

World-wide map of median download throughput

• Each bubble corresponds to a country. When you mouse over any bubble, the chart displays the name of the corresponding country.
• The color of any bubble represents the median download throughput of a country, while the size of the bubble is proportional to the number of tests run in that country.

Timeline of median download throughput of arbitrary selected countries and cities

Bar chart of median download throughput of countries world-wide

• Each bar corresponds to a country. When you mouse over any bar, the chart displays the name of the corresponding country.
• The length of any bar represents the median download throughput of a contry, while the color of the bar represents the number of tests run in that country.

Packet retransmission VS download throughput for ISPs in the US

• Each bubble corresponds to an ISP. When you mouse over any bar, the chart displays the name of the corresponding ISP.
• The size of any bubble is proportional to the number of tests run in that ISP, while the color of the bubble represents the RTT of that ISP.

Network- versus client-limited tests

• Each bubble corresponds to a country. When you mouse over any bubble, the chart displays the name of the corresponding country.
• The color of any bubble represents the median download throughput of a country, while the size of the bubble is proportional to the number of tests run in that country.
• Bubbles at the top left correspond to countries where throughput is mostly limited by network congestion, while bubbles at the bottom right correspond to countries where throughput is mostly limited by the user's device.