IMR: MT: A Community Platform for Controlled Experiments on Internet Access Networks

IMR：MT：互联网接入网络受控实验的社区平台

• 批准号: 2223610
• 负责人: Nicholas Feamster
• 金额: $ 60万
• 依托单位: University of Chicago
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-10-01 至 2024-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2223610&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: IMR; MT; Community; Platform; Controlled

Internet measurement research has long operated on convenience samples---measurements that are derived from convenience, based on the sets of vantage points that can be obtained through access to a particular testbed, the deployment of an application, or the opportunistic recruitment of participants. Throughout the early decades of the Internet, such an approach was sensible and could often provide important insights about the design of specific protocols or applications, or even some aspect of the Internet writ large. Over the past several years, however, the research community---and society more broadly---has begun to ask a broader set of questions, moving beyond those of technical protocol or application design, to questions of social or policy relevance. The current measurement tools and platforms are ill-equipped to address the concomitant research questions that intersect with broader societal questions. This project aims to develop a platform to change that, delivering the first-ever network measurement platform that can facilitate studying a broader set of research questions than are possible with existing platforms. Perhaps one of the most striking examples of such a set of questions relates to the Internet's digital divide. The challenge is widely acknowledged, by researchers, advocacy organizations, and policymakers alike, as a significant challenge, and providing all Americans with affordable Internet connectivity is a national priority as well. This project is developing a measurement platform that will enable this new family of measurements. Building on early successes in a pilot deployment in Chicago, the project aims to design, develop, and deploy a first-of-its-kind measurement infrastructure that is specifically designed to enable new classes of research questions concerning digital infrastructure across our nation's population (and ultimately, the global population). The infrastructure is open-source, and incrementally deployable and expandable, allowing the project and infrastructure to scale from pilot to national or global deployments as lessons from early deployments are applied to a larger testbed. The potential outcomes of this platform are profound and wide-ranging, catalyzing an entirely new class of Internet measurements and research studies---shifting the computer networking and Internet measurement research areas from questions that focus only on convenience samples (thus limiting our research questions to those of technology and protocols) to samples that concern infrastructure and population (thus allowing networking researchers to ask a broader set of technical questions with importance across disciplines, from economics to policy to social science).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

互联网测量研究长期以来一直以便利性样本为基础-基于便利性的测量，基于可通过访问特定试验床、部署应用程序或机会主义招募参与者而获得的一组有利点数。在整个互联网的最初几十年里，这种方法是明智的，通常可以为特定协议或应用程序的设计提供重要的见解，甚至可以概括互联网的某些方面。然而，在过去的几年里，研究界--以及更广泛的社会--已经开始提出更广泛的问题，超越了技术协议或应用程序设计的问题，转向了与社会或政策相关的问题。目前的测量工具和平台在解决与更广泛的社会问题交叉的随之而来的研究问题方面装备不足。该项目旨在开发一个平台来改变这一点，提供有史以来第一个网络测量平台，该平台可以促进研究比现有平台更广泛的研究问题集。也许这一系列问题中最引人注目的例子之一与互联网的数字鸿沟有关。这一挑战被研究人员、倡导组织和政策制定者广泛承认为一项重大挑战，为所有美国人提供负担得起的互联网连接也是国家优先事项。该项目正在开发一个测量平台，将使这一新的测量系列成为可能。在芝加哥试点部署早期成功的基础上，该项目旨在设计、开发和部署首个此类测量基础设施，该基础设施专门设计用于在我国人口(最终是全球人口)中支持有关数字基础设施的新类别的研究问题。基础设施是开源的，并且可以逐步部署和扩展，允许项目和基础设施从试点扩展到国家或全球部署，因为早期部署的经验被应用到更大的试验台。这个平台的潜在结果是深刻和广泛的，催化了一类全新的互联网测量和研究-将计算机网络和互联网测量研究领域从只关注便利样本的问题(从而将我们的研究问题限制在技术和协议的样本)转移到与基础设施和人口有关的样本(从而允许网络研究人员提出从经济学到政策再到社会科学的更广泛的一组重要技术问题)。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。