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.
Data Duplication Bug in M-Lab BigQuery Data
The team working on archiving M-Lab data recently discovered that the M-Lab data hosted in BigQuery was affected by a bug that caused duplicates to appear in our dataset. Queries against M-Lab’s BigQuery dataset performed between May 2014 and April 2015 were impacted. The raw files in our Google Cloud Storage bucket were not.
Internet Observatory Updates and Improvements
Last October, Measurement Lab released the Internet Observatory, a data-visualization tool that enables consumers, policymakers, and researchers to better understand the impact of ISP relationships on Internet access and performance. The Observatory provides easier access to M-Lab’s rich dataset on network performance to reproduce the analysis in our report on “ISP Interconnection and its Impact on Consumer Internet Performance.”
M-Lab at RIPE
On Thursday Nov. 6, Collin Anderson gave a talk at the RIPE meeting in London. Collin has been immersed in the M-Lab data for some time, and helped lead the recently published technical report, ISP Interconnection and its Impact on Consumer Internet Performance. He presented a lyrical overview of these research findings for the assembled crowd of network operators and researchers, which is archived on the RIPE website.
New Features for M-Lab Internet Observatory
We launched the M-Lab Internet Observatory last week to provide a window into ISP performance, letting people see how ISPs in the US are doing compared to each other, and to view the way in which the connections between ISPs impact performance. We will be releasing additional features and views as we go, so keep an eye on the Observatory and the blog for updates about the features as we roll them out. This week, by popular demand, we’ve added some features that enable better interaction with and sharing of interesting views of M-Lab data: