Switch discard investigation for early 2018
On February 1st, 2018, during a regular data quality review, we identified an increase in switch discards at sites with 10Gbps equipment connected to 1Gbps uplinks. We used our switch telemetry data to assess whether there were any negative consequences for tests contained in our SideStream or NDT data sets, and then we used the same data sets to determine whether our remediation strategy had any negative effects. In both cases, we found no observable effects, indicating that everything was below the noise floor for Internet performance data.
New DISCO switch telemetry dataset
Since June 2016, M-Lab has collected high resolution switch telemetry for each M-Lab server and site uplink.
Originally designed to detect switch discards from server traffic microbursts, we now support the DIScard COllection (a.k.a. DISCO) dataset as a standard M-Lab BigQuery table: measurement-lab.base_tables.switch
Monitoring Interconnection Performance Since the Open Internet Order
Introduction
As a platform committed to producing empirical data for the public, Measurement Lab (M-Lab) has historically supplied regulators and other governmental entities with technical facts pertinent rule-making processes. In our February 2015 submission to the FCC’s Open Internet docket, we committed to research on the state of broadband and performance impact of interconnection in the United States. Earlier this year, the FCC began the process of re-evaluating its authority over broadband Internet services, and opened a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. This blogpost is a shortened version comments that M-Lab filed in the docket regarding its continued research on the impact of interconnection on consumer broadband. The full filing in the FCC docket includes an elaboration of our research with additional supporting evidence and charts.
Transitioning to a New Backend Pipeline and Data Availability
M-Lab data is collected from distributed experiments hosted on servers all over the world, processed in a pipeline, and published for free in both raw and parsed (structured) formats. The back end processing component for this has served us well for many years, but it’s been showing its age recently. As M-Lab collects an increasing amount of data thanks to new partnerships, we have been concerned that it will not be as reliable.
New Opportunities for Test Deployment and Continued Analysis of Interconnection Performance
In late April, Internet2, with contributions from M-Lab developers, released an updated version of the Network Diagnostic Tool (NDT), M-Lab’s most widely deployed performance measurement test. In addition to improved stability, the updated version of NDT makes it possible to measure network performance from a web browser without the need for browser plugins. This change removes a layer of complexity and hassle for developers and users. Anyone interested in Internet measurement can now create their own NDT client targeted for specific user populations, regions, and research objectives, using only HTML and Javascript.
Assessing Typhoon Haiyans impact on core Internet infrastructure measurement tells a story
Typhoon Haiyan was a tragedy, and its human and ecological impact rightly deserve the bulk of our attention and concern.
Keeping this in mind, we are gratified to see the Internet Researchers at RIPE NCC using open Internet measurement data to analyze the health of Philippines’ core Internet infrastructure in the wake of Haiyan. Unlike much of the news related to the typhoon’s aftermath, the RIPE NCC’s conclusions on the impact of Haiyan on the Philippines’ core Internet infrastructure are tentatively hopeful: the damage appears to be moderate, and highly localized.
Explore M-Lab data using the new RIPEstat widgets
Are you the kind of person who wonders…
- What’s the bandwidth distribution among Internet users within a specific country or network?
- How are active users of a specific network geographically spread?
- How are active users spread within a specific IP address block?