NeTS-NBD: The Internet Measurements Marketplace

互联网测量推动了互联网基础设施的改进，并为互联网性能研究提供了基础。因此，衡量标准的可用性和质量对于这些领域的持续进展至关重要。已经有一些研究项目，如IDMaps，NIMI，King和Internet Weather Service，收集一般的互联网测量，然后通过从收集的通用数据中估计请求的值来回答特定的测量请求。与此同时，经常需要对某个功能进行集中的、按需的测量。作为一个典型的例子，一家公司选择一个内容交付网络来加速其网站，可能需要比较几个内容交付网络相对于特定客户群的性能。虽然一些平台（最值得注意的是部署在PlanetLab上的Scriptroute服务，以及商业上的Keynote Systems）提供测量主机来满足这一需求，但它们只能提供有限数量的测量主机，因此对互联网性能的看法有限。一家公司提供整个互联网的代表性样本显然是不可行的。更糟糕的是，拥有有限数量的知名测量主机允许被测量的系统通过专门针对这些主机进行优化来“玩弄系统”。最后，互联网测量的封闭式专有系统限制了用户对测量类型的选择。例如，在HTTP中，对页面下载的测量（使用和不使用管道和持久连接）以及客户端的不同缓存设置将产生非常不同的结果。人们不能依靠一家公司的实力来及时检测HTTP（或其他互联网应用程序）的所有趋势，并提供各种客户端操作模式的整个菜单。鉴于互联网的规模和特定计量需求的不可预测性，这些局限性只能通过利用互联网本身的能力来克服。主要研究人员（PI）提出了一个开放的互联网范围的系统，命名为DipZoom（“深度互联网性能缩放”），该系统基于对等原则，可以进行重点测量和众多测量选择。DipZoom背后有两个关键思想。首先，PI并没有试图建立一个全球规模的测量平台，而是提出了一个匹配服务，它只提供连接测量提供者和请求者的“管道”。测量本身留给外部供应商。第二，他们将使用市场方法作为系统行为的有效调节器，而没有严格的内置控制机制。这两个想法将共同创造一个互联网测量市场：一个开放的生态系统，任何人都可以从他们的计算机和其他计算设备提供测量，任何人都可以请求测量。希望开放系统与市场力量的结合将鼓励所提供的测量和测量设备的巨大和不可预测的创新和多样性。更广泛的影响：这样一个系统将大大提高我们洞察互联网特征的能力，使公司能够优化和监控其互联网网站的重点客户群，并将使“游戏系统”由于潜在的测量主机的数量不可行。作为实现这一愿景的第一步，PI将集中在建立DipZoom的情况下，在目前的奖励期间。这涉及到获得实验数据，将证明DipZoom的好处，在深入了解互联网的性能，和详细的概念设计的系统，将奠定基础，为未来的DipZoom实施。

Internet measurements drive improvements in Internet infrastructure and provide the foundation for the Internet performance research. Thus, the availability and quality of measurements is of fundamental importance to continued progress in these areas. There have been a number of research projects, such as IDMaps, NIMI, King, and Internet Weather Service, that collect general Internet measurements, and then answer specific measurement requests by estimating the requested values from the collected generic data. At the same time, a need often arises for a focused, on-demand measurement of a certain feature. As a typical example, a company selecting a content delivery network for accelerating its Web site may need to compare the performance of several content delivery networks with respect to a specific client population. While some platforms (most notably, Scriptroute service deployed on PlanetLab and, commercially, Keynote Systems) offer measuring hosts to serve this need, they can provide only a limited number of measuring hosts, and hence a limited perspective on the Internet performance. It is clearly not feasible for a single company to provide a representative sample of the entire Internet. Worse, having a limited number of well-known measuring hosts allows systems being measured to "game the system", by optimizing specifically for those hosts. Finally, the closed proprietary system for Internet measurements limits user choice of the types of measurements. For example, in HTTP, a measurement of a page download done with and without pipelining and persistent connections, and with different caching settings at the client, would yield very different results. One cannot rely on the prowess of a single company to timely detect all the trends in HTTP (or other Internet applications), and provide the entire menu of various modes of client operation. Given the scale of the Internet and the unpredictability of the needs for particular measurements, these limitations can only be overcome by harnessing the capacity of the Internet at large itself. The principal investigators (PIs) propose an open Internet-wide system, named DipZoom (for "Deep Internet Performance Zoom"), which is based on peer-to-peer principles and which would enable focused measurements and numerous measuring choices. There are two key ideas behind DipZoom. First, rather than trying to build a global-scale measuring platform, the PIs propose a matchmaking service that merely provides "plumbing" to connect measurement providers and requesters. The measurements themselves are left to outside providers. Second, they will use a market approach as an effective regulator of system behavior without rigid built-in control mechanisms. Together, these two ideas would create a marketplace for Internet measurements: an open ecosystem where anyone can offer measurements from their computers and other computing devices, and anyone can request measurements. The hope is that the combination of an open system with market forces will encourage great and unpredictable innovation and diversity in the offered measurements and measuring devices. Broader Impact: Such a system would significantly enhance our ability to gain insight into Internet characteristics, enable companies to optimize and monitor their Internet sites for focused client populations, and would make "gaming the system" infeasible due to the number of potential measuring hosts.As the first step in realizing this vision, the PIs will concentrate on building the case for DipZoom during the current award period. This involves obtaining experimental data that would demonstrate DipZoom's benefits in gaining insight into the Internet performance, and detailed conceptual design for the system that would lay the groundwork for a future DipZoom implementation.