response from Google to yet another twist

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Sounds reasonable. Any other comments??

Dave

Subject: Re: [PL #12596] external publicity for google_highground
Date: Mon, 9 Jan 2006 23:12:07 -0500
From: David Presotto via RT <support () planet-lab org>
Reply-To: support () planet-lab org
To: smuir () cs princeton edu

Email Recipients (see http://www.planet-lab.org/Support)
       Owner: Nobody
       Requestor: smuir () cs princeton edu
       Ticket Ccs: dave () farber net, google_highground@slices.planet- 
lab.org

==================================================

Hi Dave,

Long time no see.

The hits are a result of an experiment set up by a summer
intern, Michal Szymaniak.   We're trying to latency map the
internet using a 6 dimensional model he set up for his PhD
thesis.

The idea is to use some number of reference points (planet
lab nodes, google datacenters, etc) and measure latencies from
google customers to them.   We then use those latencies to try
to place the nodes in the 6D space.   Once we've mapped
enough /24s, we can guess the latency from any IP to any other
IP with a 10 to 15% error.  More importantly for us, we can cluster
the IPs around our datacenters so we can always point users
at the closest datacenter.   (For that we have to also map all
users to the DNS resolvers they use since the only steering
mechanism we have is via DNS, but that's another experiment...)

The way we're getting users to touch the different reference
points is using the header in firefox:
        Link: url options
If you use the option 'prefetch', firefox does an access of
the link referenced in background.

In our case the thing accessed is a page that just says something
like 'thank you for participating in the google latency experiment'.
We record what IP accessed and the latency time (taken from
SYN-ACK to ACK time).   Since we already know the IP our
customers use to access us, that doesn't give us much more
identity info.   It does let us locate them in space a bit better than
we currently know from services like Quova though.

The results will be part of Michal's thesis.   Right now we're not
using it
ourselves, though we may put up an interface for anyone to use
that lets them type in two IPs and get an estimated latency.   I'm
considering turning off the planetlab part if he now has enough
data.   We're happy to use just Google datacenters as reference
points for ourselves.

What do you think?   Are we doing something bad?

On Jan 9, 2006, at 6:43 PM, Steve Muir wrote:

> Dear Google folks,
>
> a Google user who's noticed the connections to PlanetLab nodes   
> being made
> has posted the message below to Dave Farber's IP list, which has a   
> pretty
> broad readership.  please can one of you respond to Dave Farber   
> with an
> explanation of what's going on.  i know you've told us before but   
> i'll let
> you give them the official version.
>
> thanks,
>
> steve
>
>
>
> On Mon, 9 Jan 2006, Steve Muir via RT wrote:
>
>
> > Date: Mon, 9 Jan 2006 20:42:27 -0500
> > From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
> > To: ip () v2 listbox com
> > Subject: [IP] more on ****yet*****  Another new Google twist..
> >
> >
> >
> > Begin forwarded message:
> >
> > From: Rodney Joffe <rjoffe () centergate com>
> > Date: January 9, 2006 6:11:13 PM EST
> > To: Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com>, Dave Farber   
> > <dave () farber net>
> > Subject: Re: [IP] more on Another new Google twist..
> >
> > Hi Lauren,
> >
> > On Jan 9, 2006, at 1:36 PM, David Farber wrote:
> >
> > > Begin forwarded message:
> > >
> > > From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com>
> > > Date: January 9, 2006 2:41:01 PM EST
> > > To: dave () farber net
> > > Cc: capek () ieee net
> > > Subject: Re: [IP] Another new Google twist..
> > >
> > > This is not entirely a straightforward situation.  First, such
> > > history displays are almost certainly based on cookies, so persons
> > > who do not allow Google cookies are unlikely to see such output.
> > > (Note however that this is a separate issue from Google's internal
> > > logs of user search activity presumably tied to IP addresses.)
> >
> > But wait, there's more. I have also been noticing seemingly random
> > but frequent attempts to trigger firefox connections to various
> > planetlabs machines (http://www.planet-lab.org/) as a result of
> > Google searches. I think it is admirable that Google is supporting
> > the research world but were it not for my "littleSnitch" application,
> > I would have had no idea. Nor do I know what Google is triggering, or
> > what data is being forwarded to the planetlabs network, or why - I
> > haven't bothered to stop it thus far. Have you noticed this?
> > "Googling" for this brings up general hints showing Google's
> > involvement, but I can't find any official note in Google's help
> > pages or FAQ.
> >
> > Machines include:
> > Server: planet3.seattle.intel-research.net (12.17.136.138)
> > Server: planetlab2.ls.fi.upm.es (138.100.12.149)
> > Server: planetlab2.eecs.umich.edu (141.213.4.202)
> > Server: planetlab1.pop-rs.rnp.br (200.132.0.69)
> > Server: planetlab1.pop-rs.rnp.br (200.132.0.70)
> >
> >
> > ----------------------------------------------
> > Rodney Joffe
> > CenterGate Research Group, LLC.
> > http://www.centergate.com
> > "Technology so advanced, even we don't understand it!"(R)
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > PlanetLab Support Mail Reflector
> > support () planet-lab org
> > https://lists.planet-lab.org/mailman/listinfo/support-community

_______________________________________________
PlanetLab Support Mail Reflector
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https://lists.planet-lab.org/mailman/listinfo/support-community


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