Google announces tools to determine if your ISP is blocking or throttling traffic (fwd)

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Matt Mathis <mathis () psc edu>
Date: January 28, 2009 4:25:09 PM EST
To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: Google announces tools to determine if your ISP is blocking  
or throttling traffic (fwd)

FYI,

Posted by Vint Cerf, Chief Internet Evangelist, and Stephen Stuart,
Principal Engineer

When an Internet application doesn't work as expected or your connection
seems flaky, how can you tell whether there is a problem caused by your
broadband ISP, the application, your PC, or something else? It can be
difficult for experts, let alone average Internet users, to address this
sort of question today.

Last year we asked a small group of academics about ways to advance  
network
research and provide users with tools to test their broadband  
connections.
Today Google, the New America Foundation <http://www.newamerica.net/> 's
Open Technology Institute, the PlanetLab Consortium
<http://www.planet-lab.org/> , and academic researchers are taking the  
wraps
off of Measurement <http://www.measurementlab.net/>  Lab (M-Lab), an  
open
platform that researchers can use to deploy Internet measurement tools.

Researchers are already developing tools that allow users to, among  
other
things, measure the speed of their connection, run diagnostics, and  
attempt
to discern if their ISP is blocking or throttling particular  
applications.
These tools generate and send some data back-and-forth between the  
user's
computer and a server elsewhere on the Internet. Unfortunately,  
researchers
lack widely-distributed servers with ample connectivity. This poses a
barrier to the accuracy and scalability of these tools. Researchers also
have trouble sharing data with one another.

M-Lab aims to address these problems. Over the course of early 2009,  
Google
will provide researchers with 36 servers in 12 locations in the U.S. and
Europe. All data collected via M-Lab will be made publicly available for
other researchers to build on. M-Lab is intended to be a truly
community-based effort, and we welcome the support of other companies,
institutions, researchers, and users that want to provide servers,  
tools, or
other resources that can help the platform flourish.

Today, M-Lab is at the beginning of its development. To start, three  
tools
<http://www.measurementlab.net/measurement-lab-tools>  running on  
servers
near Google's headquarters are available to help users attempt to  
diagnose
common problems that might impair their broadband speed, as well as
determine whether BitTorrent is being blocked or throttled by their  
ISPs.
These tools were created by the individual researchers who helped found
M-Lab. By running these tools, users will get information about their
connection and provide researchers with valuable aggregate data. Like  
M-Lab
itself these tools are still in development, and they will only  
support a
limited number of simultaneous users at this initial stage.

At Google, we care deeply about sustaining the Internet as an open  
platform
for consumer choice and innovation. No matter your views on net  
neutrality
and ISP network management practices, everyone can agree that Internet  
users
deserve to be well-informed about what they're getting when they sign  
up for
broadband, and good data is the
<http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-280909A3.doc>
bedrock of sound policy. Transparency has always been crucial to the  
success
of the Internet, and, by advancing network research in this area, M- 
Lab aims
to help sustain a healthy, innovative Internet.

You can learn more at the M-Lab website
<http://www.measurementlab.net/about> . If you're a researcher who'd  
like to
deploy a tool, or a company or institution that is interested in  
providing
technical resources, we invite you to get
<http://www.measurementlab.net/getinvolved>  involved.

--
Posted By Google Public Policy Blog to Google
<http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2009/01/introducing-measurement-lab 
.
html>  Public Policy Blog at 1/28/2009 03:32:00 P





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