IRNC-SP: Sustainable Data-Handling and Analysis Methodologies for the IRNC Networks

University Of California-San Diego, La Jolla CA

Investigators

Abstract

Measurement of operational Internet infrastructure involves navigating more complex and interconnected dimensions (logistical, financial, methodological, technical, legal, and ethical) than measurement in most scientific disciplines. These challenges impede the collection, coordination, curation, and sharing of data sets to support network architectural, engineering, security, and operations research. This project will make three contributions to the IRNC community's measurement efforts: hosting structured discussions of how to most effectively share IRNC data and statistics; adapting exiting traffic and topology measurement technologies for IRNC community needs based on the resulting feedback; and applying two innovations in data stewardship to IRNC measurements. The measurement software improvements will include support for emerging IPv6 and DNSSEC, anonymization and aggregation for privacy protection, and data formats used by the majority of the IRNC operators, such as netflow output from routers. It will also (optionally) install, deploy, and manage IPv6-capable active measurement nodes at each interested IRNC site. The data stewardship contributions include: (1) experimentation with a recently developed framework for privacy-sensitive data sharing; and (2) prototyping a dissemination (reporting) format aimed at incenting broader participation in globally coordinated Internet measurements. The project will help IRNC operators better understand their networks, and will advance the quantity and quality of data available to researchers in a number of sub-disciplines of network science. The impacts include strengthening activities in network modeling, simulation, analysis, and theoretical research, enabling the IRNC program to play a formative role in the emerging discipline of network science, and enhancing NSF's leading role in sustainable stewardship of cyberinfrastructure.