NeTS: Small: Collaborative Research: Studying Internet Interconnections in the Era of Cloud Computing

网络对或自治系统（as）之间的互连图，如互联网提供商，对网络研究人员和网络运营商等广泛的各方都很重要，他们的活动依赖于对互联网及其互连的准确看法。众所周知，系统地描绘这些相互联系是一个众所周知的难题。在这里，术语“映射”指的是首先推断互连的存在和类型（例如，公共与私有对等互联），然后将它们定位到提供和使用互连的托管设施。最近，对“虚拟专用互连”（vpi）的引入和不断增长的需求对任何此类映射工作都具有破坏性。vpi是一种新的互连服务，在新兴的基础设施上提供，称为“云交换”，一些主要的主机托管设施提供商（例如Equinix和CoreSite）已经开始在其主要市场上运营。通过提供vpi，这些云交换使传统参与者（例如，使用自治系统编号运行的网络）以及非传统参与者（例如，不拥有自治系统编号的企业）能够连接到存在于交换中的任何云提供商，从而使与云服务相关的流量绕过公共互联网。此外，与传统的互连选项相比，vpi可以通过使用基于web的门户实时提供。大量非传统互联网参与者以vpi的形式建立互连的能力，以及这种类型互连的日益动态的性质，使得今天的互联网互连的系统映射更具挑战性。不仅现有的互联网互连映射技术无法检测vpi，而且即使将其应用于传统类型的互连，其适用性和准确性在很大程度上仍然未知。随着越来越多的网络利用云服务，同时使用传统互连和云交换提供的vpi正变得越来越普遍，这需要一种新的方法来发现这种“混合”连接，研究其动态，并对当今互联网的“云化”所推动的“服务到服务”连接类型进行首次评估。本研究项目的主要目标是开发这样一种新方法，设计并严格评估由此产生的新技术和开源工具套件，用于推断和定位一般的互连，特别是云交换和某些ixp（互联网交换点）上的vpi。作为该项目的一部分，将开发一个在线门户网站，提供有用的可视化功能，并提供对大量地理感知互联地图存档的访问。该项目还将使其他研究小组能够为这一重要的制图工作做出贡献，鼓励不同研究小组对结果进行交叉验证，并最终生成更准确的互联网互连图，有望为检测潜在互联网漏洞和性能瓶颈的新方法提供独特的见解。该项目由教育和推广计划补充，包括(i)为新课程和研究生水平的研讨会制定课程，（ii）硕士水平和本科生参与拟议的工作（例如，测量，可视化），以及（iii）组织K-12推广活动，CS学生自愿向当地小学，初中和高中的学生教授基本的编程概念，作为课后项目的一部分。

Maps of the interconnections between pairs of networks or Autonomous Systems (ASes), such as Internet providers, are important to a wide range of parties, such as network researchers and network operators, whose activities depend on an accurate view of the Internet and its interconnections. Systematically mapping these interconnections is known to be a notoriously difficult problem. Here, the term 'mapping' refers to first inferring the presence and type of interconnections (e.g., public vs. private peering) and then geolocating them to the colocation facility where the interconnections are provided and utilized. Recently, the introduction of and growing demand for "virtual private interconnections" (VPIs) has been particularly disruptive for any such mapping efforts. VPIs are a new interconnection service that is offered at newly emerging infrastructures called "cloud exchanges" that some of the major colocation facility providers (e.g., Equinix and CoreSite) have started to operate in their major markets. By offering VPIs, these cloud exchanges enable traditional players (e.g., networks operating with an AS number) as well as non-traditional players (e.g., enterprises that do not own an AS number) to connect to any cloud provider that is present at the exchange, thereby enabling cloud-service-related traffic to bypass the public Internet. Moreover, in contrast to the traditional interconnection options, VPIs can be provisioned in real-time via the use of web-based portals. The ability of a large pool of non-traditional Internet players to establish interconnections in the form of VPIs and the increasingly dynamic nature of this type of interconnection have made the systematic mapping of today's Internet interconnections even more challenging. Not only are the existing techniques for mapping Internet interconnections incapable of detecting VPIs, but even when applied to the traditional types of interconnections, their applicability and accuracy remain largely unknown. As more networks utilize cloud services, the concurrent use of traditional interconnections and cloud-exchange-provided VPIs is becoming more common and requires a new approach for discovering this 'hybrid' connectivity, studying its dynamics, and providing a first-of-its-kind assessment of the type of 'service-to-service' connectivity that is fueled by the 'cloudification' of today's Internet. The main goal of this research project is to develop such a new approach and design and rigorously evaluate the resulting suite of new techniques and open-source tools for inferring and geolocating interconnections in general, and VPIs at both cloud exchanges and certain IXPs (Internet eXchange Points), in particular. An online portal that offers useful visualization capabilities and provides access to a large archive of geo-aware interconnection maps will be developed as part of this project. The project will also enable other research groups to contribute to this important mapping effort, encourage the cross-validation of results by different research groups, and ultimately produce more accurate maps of the Internet's interconnections that can be expected to offer unique insights into new ways of detecting potential Internet vulnerabilities and performance bottlenecks. The project is complemented by an education and outreach plan that includes (i) the development of a curriculum for a new course and graduate level seminars, (ii) the participation of Masters level and undergraduate students in the proposed work (e.g., measurement, visualization), and (iii) the organization of a K-12 outreach activity where CS students volunteer to teach basic programming concepts to students at local elementary, middle, and high schools as part of after-school programs.