Collaborative Research: IMR: MM-1A: Measuring Internet Access Networks Across Space and Time

该项目解决了随时间和不同地理区域测量互联网接入网络性能的挑战。这项任务对研究人员、互联网服务提供商和政策倡导者来说是一个长期的挑战。在过去的十年里，研究人员在开发使用“速度测试”工具来测量个人宽带互联网接入链路性能的技术方面取得了重大进展。不幸的是，来自这些工具的现有数据集存在局限性，难以可靠地评估跨时间和跨地域的互联网性能。为了应对这些挑战，该项目正在开发新的抽样方法和统计模型，以提供跨时间和空间的更全面和更具代表性的互联网性能视图。这项工作的一部分涉及创建新的互联网测量数据集，这些数据集最终可以应用于网络研究和互联网政策中的一系列开放式问题。该项目将创建的数据集最终将揭示互联网基础设施投资如何影响特定地区的性能，以及性能如何随着时间的推移而演变。鉴于联邦政府对宽带基础设施的投资以及公众对弥合数字鸿沟的兴趣日益浓厚，该项目的方法尤为及时和相关。从智力价值和奖学金的角度来看，该项目汇集了来自多个学科的专家，包括网络测量、统计学、可视化、社会学和公共政策。第一个挑战是理解如何使用单一优势点的性能指标来概括整个接入网络的性能。第二个挑战涉及从宽带互联网接入网络的有利位置使用空间相关的互联网测量，以得出关于地理区域内和跨地理区域的互联网性能的结论。该项目更广泛的影响在于扩展到社区、课程发展和政策影响。这项研究背后的动机之一是调查互联网性能在城市内不同地域和社区之间是否公平分布。全面理解这个问题对于解决互联网接入的公平问题至关重要。作为该项目的一部分，通过开发新的分析框架，网络研究人员和公众将最终深入了解互联网性能的分布，并为缩小数字鸿沟做出贡献。项目网站https://internetequity.org/将作为共享项目相关资源的中心枢纽。该网站将发布数据、代码、结果、仿真器、模拟器和其他再现性和协作所需的材料。项目团队致力于维护该网站，以确保继续访问项目的产出，并促进该领域正在进行的研究和进步。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The project addresses the challenge of measuring the performance of Internet access networks over time, and across different geographic regions. This task has been a longstanding challenge for researchers, Internet service providers, and policy advocates. Over the past decade, researchers have made significant progress in developing techniques to measure the performance of individual broadband Internet access links using "speed test" tools. Unfortunately, the existing datasets derived from these tools have limitations that make it difficult to reliably assess Internet performance over time and across geographies.Towards addressing these challenges, this project is developing new sampling approaches and statistical models that will provide a more comprehensive and representative view of Internet performance across time and space. Part of this effort involves the creation of new Internet measurement datasets, which can ultimately be applied to a range of open questions in both networking research and Internet policy. The datasets the project will create will ultimately shed light on how investments in Internet infrastructure impact performance in specific regions and how performance evolves over time. Given federal investments in broadband infrastructure and the growing public interest in bridging the digital divide, the project's approach is particularly timely and relevant.From the standpoint of intellectual merit and scholarship, the project brings together experts from multiple disciplines, including network measurement, statistics, visualization, sociology, and public policy. The first challenge is to understand how performance metrics from a single vantage point can be used to generalize about the performance of an entire access network over time. The second challenge involves using spatially correlated Internet measurements from vantage points in broadband Internet access networks to draw conclusions about Internet performance within and across geographic regions.The broader impact of the project lies in outreach to community, curricular development, and policy impact. One of the motivations behind the research is to investigate whether Internet performance is equitably distributed acrossdifferent geographies and neighborhoods within a city. Achieving a comprehensive understanding of this question is critical for addressing questions of equity in Internet access. By developing new analysis frameworks as part of this project, networking researchers and the general public will ultimately gain insight into the distribution of Internet performance and contribute to efforts aimed at reducing the digital divide.The project website at https://internetequity.org/ will serve as a central hub for sharing project-related resources. The website will publish data, code, results, emulators, simulators, and other materials necessary for reproducibility and collaboration. The project team is committed to maintaining the website to ensure continued access to the project's outputs and facilitate ongoing research and advancements in the field.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.