Seminar - Internet Measurements (2017)
Dr. Vaibhav Bajpai
The Internet is one of the most complex systems the human race has engineered. However, this increasing complexity has made it remarkably difficult for engineers to not only understand but also reliably predict its behavior today. It becomes intangible to identify improvements to a system when many aspects of the system become opaque to its designers.
Internet measurements has emerged as a new field in our era that helps to identify the properties of the Internet so that we are in a better position to improve it for future generations. Measurements are used today to not only isolate network failures but also to ascertain network performance and study the natural evolution of this running system. This is the reason why measurements are starting to get actively used by standardisation bodies to inform protocol engineering and design. They are also actively used by network operators and content providers to help improve the quality of experience of their customers. Measurements are also becoming input for regulators that shape future broadband policies.
In this seminar, we will explore seminal papers in the field of Internet measurements. These papers will help teach us techniques and tools that are used to reveal the properties of the Internet today.
(Recommended) requirements:
The participants are expected to have taken an undergraduate-level course on computer networks.
Relevant Conferences:
- Internet Measurement Conference (IMC)
- Passive and Active Measurement Conference (PAM)
- Traffic Monitoring and Analysis Workshop (TMA)
Time and Location:
Thursdays (14:00 - 16:00) in Room 01.07.023.
Schedule:
Review Form:
The review form is available here
Pre-course Meeting:
Friday: 03.02.2017 (10:00 - 12:00) in Room 01.07.023: Slides
Topics:
The topics of interest include (but are not limited) to the following -
Measurements at TCP/IP layers
| Application Layer | |
| Security Layer | |
| Transport Layer | |
| Internet Layer | |
| Link Layer | |
| Physical Layer |
Measurement Platforms
Tools
Diagnostic tools
- Revealing Middlebox Interference with Tracebox
- From Paris to Tokyo: On the Suitability of ping to Measure Latency
- Scamper: A Scalable and Extensible Packet Prober for Active Measurement of the Internet
- Netalyzr: Illuminating The Edge Network
- Avoiding traceroute anomalies with Paris traceroute
Internet-wide scanning
- ZMap: Fast Internet-Wide Scanning and its Security Applications
- Censys – A Search Engine Backed by Internet-Wide Scanning
General Reading
Learning outcomes (study goals):
The participants will learn how to read papers. They will learn the purpose but also the methodology and tone of writing good paper reviews. Participants will also learn how to present a technical paper in a conference-style setting. This will involve learning to not only stay within time limits of a presentation slot but also to appreciate the Q/A session at the end.
Further Reading: How to read a paper.
Teaching and learning methods:
- A written paper review before the presentation (20% grade)
- Weekly presentations during the semester (70% grade)
- Group discussions (10% grade)
Each participant presents 1 paper during the course of the seminar. To ensure everybody has read the paper, participants that witness the presentation are required to hand in a review of the paper (template of the review form is available here) being presented. Each participant should have reviewed 4 papers by the end of the semester. Presentations should be planned for 20 minutes. A presentation in the beginning of the seminar is planned to provide pointers to participants on how to review measurement papers.