The importance of contextualization of crowdsourced active speed test measurements
The importance of contextualization of crowdsourced active speed test measurements
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DOI：
10.1145/3517745.3561441
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发表时间：
2022-10
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通讯作者：
Udit Paul;Jiamo Liu;Mengyang Gu;Arpit Gupta;E. Belding-Royer
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作者：
Udit Paul;Jiamo Liu;Mengyang Gu;Arpit Gupta;E. Belding-Royer
众包速度测试测量，例如Ookla®和测量实验室(M-Lab)的测量，从用户的角度提供了网络访问和性能的关键视图。然而，我们认为，以表面价值衡量这些测量结果是有问题的。要更好地了解达到的上传和下载速度真正衡量的是什么，就必须将这些衡量标准与背景联系起来。为此，我们开发了一种新的宽带订阅层(BST)方法，将速度测试数据点与住宅宽带订阅计划相关联。我们用FCC的MBA数据集对这一方法的评估显示，准确率超过96%。我们使用BST方法增加了来自美国四个主要城市的大约150万个Ookla和M-Lab速度测试测量。我们发现，许多低速数据点可归因于较低级别的订阅，而不一定是访问不佳。然后，对于测量样本的一个子集(80K数据点)，我们量化了接入链路类型(WiFi或有线)、WiFi频段和RSSI(如果适用)以及设备内存对速度测试性能的影响。有趣的是，我们观察到一天中的测量时间对报告的速度只有轻微的影响。最后，我们表明，由于M-Lab采用了不同的测量方法，对于相同的订阅层、城市和运营商，Ookla速度测试报告的吞吐量中值可能比M-Lab的测量结果高出两倍。基于我们的结果，我们为速度测试供应商和FCC提出了一系列建议，以结合速度测试数据点并正确解释测量的性能。
Crowdsourced speed test measurements, such as those by Ookla® and Measurement Lab (M-Lab), offer a critical view of network access and performance from the user's perspective. However, we argue that taking these measurements at surface value is problematic. It is essential to contextualize these measurements to understand better what the attained upload and download speeds truly measure. To this end, we develop a novel Broadband Subscription Tier (BST) methodology that associates a speed test data point with a residential broadband subscription plan. Our evaluation of this methodology with the FCC's MBA dataset shows over 96% accuracy. We augment approximately 1.5M Ookla and M-Lab speed test measurements from four major U.S. cities with the BST methodology. We show that many low-speed data points are attributable to lower-tier subscriptions and not necessarily poor access. Then, for a subset of the measurement sample (80k data points), we quantify the impact of access link type (WiFi or wired), WiFi spectrum band and RSSI (if applicable), and device memory on speed test performance. Interestingly, we observe that measurement time of day only marginally affects the reported speeds. Finally, we show that the median throughput reported by Ookla speed tests can be up to two times greater than M-Lab measurements for the same subscription tier, city, and ISP due to M-Lab's employment of different measurement methodologies. Based on our results, we put forward a set of recommendations for both speed test vendors and the FCC to con-textualize speed test data points and correctly interpret measured performance.