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

作为最大的人造复杂网络，互联网的发展没有中央权威。数以千计的中小型自主系统连接了个人、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。每个网络都是由拥有不同技术专长的运营商建设的，范围从小型本地组织网络到大型跨洲骨干网络。这一综合研究和教育计划旨在开发一个互联网拓扑图系统，为改善各种应用领域的通信提供基础。该项目试图在互联网拓扑测量的多个层面上提供重大改进，并将产生的测量数据转换为有用的信息，用于建模和从互联网拓扑中提取知识。这个项目：(I)在应对大规模拓扑数据处理的挑战方面建立了新的想法，以捕获互联网的特征和动态；(Ii)提供有价值的纵向互联网拓扑测量和可定制的大规模图形数据库的图形索引工具；(Iii)集成复杂网络理论以了解和建议改进互联网主干的方法；以及(Iv)将K-12、大学和研究生教育紧密地整合到其研究活动中。智力优势：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并定期提供互联网主干的快照。然后，该测绘系统将被用于调查因特网的拓扑特征，并为应用程序优化其通信提供基础。与现有的Internet拓扑测量平台相比，该系统将(I)以更高的精度构建Internet拓扑图，因为系统集成了多种机制来有效地处理大规模测量数据；(Ii)通过在链路层提供骨干拓扑图来在更高的粒度上工作；(Iii)除了原始测量数据之外，定期发布带注释的网络拓扑，以便社区在他们的实验中利用它们来优化网络通信；(Iv)帮助理解Internet拓扑动态和提供网络增强；以及(V)提供一个图形索引工具来处理和分析大规模网络。Broader Impact：了解互联网的拓扑特征是包括政府、学术界和工业界在内的各个社区的重要问题。网络研究界依靠这样的互联网地图系统来了解互联网的特点，从而开发出更好的协议和服务。此外，云场和内容分发网络等新的网络模式需要了解底层网络。测绘系统将帮助这些社区进行地形分析和研究互联网的大尺度特征。该项目整合了对所有教育层次的研究，包括科学项目、研讨会和K-12学生的夏令营，以及对大学生和研究生的课程开发和指导。在该项目内开发的服务将向研究人员和从业者提供。同样，开发的工具、数据和课程材料将通过开放源码分发向公众开放。

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.