Nets: Small: Mapping Internet Backbone as an Underlay for Improved Communications

互联网作为最大的人造复杂网络，在没有中央权威的情况下成长。成千上万的中小型自治系统连接个人，企业，大学和机构，同时专注于优化自己的通信效率和经济目标。每个网络都由具有不同技术专长的运营商构建，范围从小型本地组织网络到大型洲际骨干网。这项综合研究和教育计划的目的是开发一个互联网拓扑映射系统，为改善各个应用领域的通信提供一个工具。该项目试图在多个层次的互联网拓扑测量提供显着的改进，并将所得的测量数据转化为有用的信息，用于建模和从互联网拓扑中提取知识。本项目：（i）建立在接近大规模拓扑数据处理的挑战以捕获互联网特征和动态的新颖想法的基础上，（ii）为大规模图形数据库提供有价值的纵向互联网拓扑测量和可定制的图形索引工具，（iii）集成复杂网络理论以理解和建议改进互联网骨干的方法，以及（iv）紧密集成K-12，大学，学术价值：该项目的动机是开发一个全面的系统，该系统将以精细的粒度捕获互联网拓扑结构，并定期提供互联网骨干的快照。然后，该映射系统将被用来研究互联网的拓扑特征，并为应用程序提供优化其通信的方法。与现有的互联网拓扑测量平台相比，该系统将（i）建立更高精度的互联网拓扑图，因为该系统集成了多种机制，以有效地处理大规模的测量数据;（ii）通过在链路层提供骨干拓扑图，以更高的粒度工作;（iii）除了原始测量数据之外，定期发布注释的网络拓扑，使得社区可以在其实验中利用它们并优化网络通信;（iv）协助了解互联网拓扑结构的动态变化，并提供网络改善措施;及（v）提供一个图表索引工具，以处理和分析大型网络。更广泛的影响：了解互联网的拓扑结构特征，对政府、学术界和工业界等各界都是一项重要的课题。网络研究社区依赖于这样的互联网映射系统来了解互联网的特性，以便开发更好的协议和服务。此外，诸如云农场和内容分发网络之类的新网络范例需要了解底层网络。测绘系统将帮助这些社区进行地形分析，研究互联网的大规模特征。该项目将研究整合到各级教育中，包括科学项目，研讨会和K-12学生夏令营以及大学和研究生的课程开发和指导。该项目开发的服务将提供给研究人员和从业人员。同样，开发的工具，数据和课程材料将通过开源分发向公众提供。

As the largest man-made complex network, the Internet grows with no central authority. Thousands of small and medium size Autonomous Systems connect individuals, businesses, universities, and agencies while focusing on optimizing their own communication efficiency and economic objectives. Each network is built by operators with different technical expertise and range a from small local organization network to a large transcontinental backbone. This integrated research and education plan aims to develop an Internet Topology Mapping System that will provide an underlay for improved communications in various application domains. The project attempts to provide significant improvements at multiple levels of Internet topology measurements and transforms the resulting measurement data into useful information for modeling and extracting knowledge from the Internet topology. This project: (i) builds upon novel ideas in approaching the challenges in large-scale topology data handling to capture Internet characteristics and dynamics, (ii) provides valuable longitudinal Internet topology measurements and a customizable graph indexing tool for large scale graph databases, (iii) integrates complex network theories to understand and suggest ways to improve the Internet backbone, and (iv) closely integrates K-12, college, and graduate education into its research activities.Intellectual Merit: The motivation of the project is to develop a comprehensive system that will capture the Internet topology at fine granularity and periodically provide snapshots of the Internet backbone. The mapping system will then be utilized to investigate topological characteristics of the Internet and provide an underlay for applications to optimize their communications. Compared to the existing Internet topology measurement platforms, the system will (i) build Internet topology graphs with higher accuracy as the system integrates several mechanisms to efficiently handle large-scale measurement data; (ii) work at higher level of granularity by providing backbone topology maps at link layer; (iii) periodically release annotated network topologies in addition to the raw measurement data so that the community can utilize them in their experiments and optimize network communications; (iv) help in understanding Internet topology dynamics and providing network enhancements; and (v) provide a graph indexing tool to process and analyze large-scale networks.Broader Impacts: Understanding the topological characteristics of the Internet is an important issue for various communities including the government, academia and industry. Network research community depends on such Internet mapping systems to understand characteristics of the Internet so that better protocols and services are developed. Moreover, new network paradigms such as cloud farms and content distribution networks require knowledge of the underlying networks. The mapping system will help these communities to conduct topography analysis and study large-scale characteristics of the Internet. The project integrates research to all levels of education including science projects, seminars, and summer camps for K-12 students and curriculum development and mentorship of college and graduate students. The services developed within the project will be available to researchers and practitioners. Similarly, the developed tools, data, and course material will be available to public via open-source distribution.