IMR: MM-1C: Effective Geolocation of Internet Hosts

该项目解决了根据互联网地址确定互联网主机的地理位置的问题(“地理位置问题”)。地理定位是计算机网络中的一个基本问题，影响着互联网运营、研究和发展的方方面面。不幸的是，大量证据表明，现有的地理定位服务容易出现错误和不准确，尤其是在地图内容提供商平台方面。除了对依赖地理位置的应用程序的明显影响外，这些不准确还会破坏任何利用地理位置进行的研究的严谨性。这项研究将开发新的技术来提高地理定位的效率和准确性，并利用这些技术来系统地评估有影响力的现有地理定位服务的准确性。地理定位通常涉及测量从一组“地标”(具有已知位置的主机)到地理定位目标的网络延迟。通过对不同的目标不同地选择少量的地标，本项目试图打破这样的困境，即需要大量的地标以获得更高的准确度，但由于测量量大而导致可伸缩性限制。通过开发一种新的地理定位方法，评估它的新功能是否可以使大部分互联网主机能够进行正确的地理定位，以及评估现有地理位置服务的准确性，这一活动将增进我们对互联网主机地理位置领域的知识，这是网络中的一个基本问题，影响着互联网发展的许多方面。互联网主机地理位置技术的进步通过使任何依赖地理位置的应用和研究受益，产生了广泛的影响。在一定程度上，它将表明可证明的地理位置是可行的，该项目将通过允许对主机位置进行严格的推理，改变依赖地理位置进行网络研究的方式。包含活动测量的数据集以及在该项目过程中产生的软件制品将公开可用。该项目将大大加强华南理工大学的本科生和研究生教育，并促进其正在进行的努力，扩大未被充分代表的部分人口对计算机科学的参与。该项目产生的所有数据(在需要时匿名)和相关软件制品将通过项目网站http://engr.case.edu/rabinovich_michael/geolocation.提供内容本身将存储在外部公共储存库，如GitHub(githeb.com)和OSF(osf.io)，而项目网站将提供内容链接及其描述。该奖项将在项目完成后至少5年内保留。该奖项反映了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。

This project tackles the problem of determining the geographic location of Internet hosts from their Internet addresses (the “geolocation problem”). Geolocation is a fundamental problem in computer networking that affects numerous aspects of Internet operation, research, and development. Unfortunately, ample evidence shows that existing geolocation services are prone to errors and inaccuracies, especially when it comes to mapping content provider platforms. Beyond the obvious impact on applications relying on geolocation, these inaccuracies undermine the rigor of any research that utilizes geolocation. This research will develop novel techniques that improve the efficiency and accuracy of geolocation and leverage these techniques to systematically assess the accuracy of influential existing geolocation services. Geolocation commonly involves measuring network delays from a set of “landmarks” (the hosts with known locations) to the geolocation target. By selecting – differently for different targets -- a small number of landmarks from a large pool of candidates, this project attempts to break the dilemma where a large number of landmarks is desired for higher accuracy but leads to scalability limits due to high measurement volumes. Through developing a new geolocation methodology, assessing if its new capabilities could make provably correct geolocation feasible for a substantial fraction of Internet hosts, and evaluating the accuracy of existing geolocation services, this activity will advance our knowledge in the area of Internet host geolocation, a fundamental problem in networking affecting numerous aspects of Internet development.Advancing the state of the art in Internet host geolocation has broad impact through benefiting any applications and research that relies on geolocation. To the extent that it will show that provable geolocation is practical, this project will transform how networking research relying on geolocation is done, by allowing rigorous reasoning about host locations. Datasets containing active measurements, as well as software artifacts, produced in the course of this project will be made publicly available. The project will significantly enhance undergraduate and graduate education at CWRU and facilitate its ongoing efforts in broadening participation of underrepresented sections of the population in computer science.All the data (anonymized when needed) and relevant software artifacts the project produces will be made available through the project website at http://engr.case.edu/rabinovich_michael/geolocation. The content itself will be stored at external public repositories such as github (github.com) and OSF (osf.io), while the project website will provide links to the content along with its description. This will be kept available for at least 5 years after the project completion.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.