RAPID: Measuring the Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Broadband Access Networks to Inform Robust Network Design

本项目旨在研究新冠肺炎疫情引发的互联网流量变化对宽带互联网接入基础设施的影响。具体地说，该项目调查日常生活模式的变化导致流量如何变化，以及流量的变化如何影响网络利用率、网络性能和应用程序性能。在新冠肺炎大流行期间，这些问题变得越来越关键，因为很大一部分人已经变得依赖可靠的互联网接入，从视频会议到远程学习和医疗保健，可靠的互联网接入性能良好。重要的是要了解在整个社会比以往任何时候都更加依赖网络的时候，涉及隔离、隔离和关闭学校、图书馆和服务的各种政策如何影响互联网的使用模式。该项目将通过细粒度测量、适当的数据共享协议以及跨越十年的广泛基线数据，对危机下的网络流量负载进行前所未有的数据协调。本项目旨在研究两个基础性研究问题：(1)新冠肺炎疫情对宽带接入网络流量模式有何影响？以及(2)基础设施和应用程序能否很好地(以及能否)支持流量模式的这些变化？为了研究这些问题，该项目计划采取多方面的方法，探索在网络紧张的情况下使用关键应用程序时的访问性能和互连容量等问题。这项测量研究将揭示现有互联网基础设施能够在多大程度上承受显著改变网络流量的位置、性质和规模的外部冲击，并帮助识别漏洞。对宽带互联网表现状况的洞察将产生重要的见解，即政府关闭学校和依赖远程电子学习的更广泛政策可能会如何影响更广泛的人口。了解互联网对医疗和公共卫生中其他应用领域的压力增加，包括患者依从性和远程护理，可能会改进针对这些应用领域的互联网设计。该项目的活动将公布在https://cdac.uchicago.edu/broadband.This奖项上，该奖项反映了国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。

This project is to study the effects of the shifts in Internet traffic resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic on the broadband Internet access infrastructure. Specifically, the project investigates how traffic volumes are changing as a result of changes in daily patterns of life, as well as how those shifts in traffic volume affect network utilization, network performance, and application performance. These questions have become increasingly critical during the COVID-19 pandemic, as large fractions of the population have come to depend on reliable Internet access that performs well for a variety of applications, from video conferencing to remote learning and healthcare. It is important to understand how various policies involving isolation, distancing, and closing of schools, libraries and services are affecting the usage patterns on the Internet, right at the time when the entire society is coming to rely on the network more than ever.This project will involve an unprecedented coordination of data about network traffic load under crisis, through granular measurements, propriety data sharing agreements, as well as extensive baseline data spanning over ten years. This project aims to study two fundamental research questions: (1) What is the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on network traffic patterns on broadband access networks? and (2) How well do (and will) the infrastructure and applications sustain these changes in traffic patterns? To study these questions, the project plans to take a multi-faceted approach, exploring issues including access performance and interconnect capacity when using critical applications when the network is under strain. This measurement study will shed light on the extent to which the existing Internet infrastructure can sustain exogenous shocks that dramatically shift the location, nature, and scale of network traffic and help identify vulnerabilities. Insights into the state of broadband Internet performance will yield important insights about how broader government policies to close schools and rely on remote e-learning may affect the broader population. Understanding the increased strain on the Internet on other application areas in medicine and public health, including patient compliance and remote caregiving, may lead to improved design of the Internet for such application areas. The project's activities will be posted to https://cdac.uchicago.edu/broadband.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.