[mat-wg] virtual map of Internet on the basis of RIPE ATLAS data

Dear Sirs,

I am Andrei Sukhov from Samara. I would like to discuss the construction of virtual map of Internet on the basis of RIPE ATLAS data.



Virtual map of the Internet

Introduction

Recently, numerous measuring systems like RIPE ATLAS are established to monitor the global network, organization of inter-domain routing principles and concepts of connectedness. As a rule, measurement mechanisms are based on modifications of the time-tested tools: ping and traceroute. That is, measure the round-trip time of package and the way as a sequence of routers that handle packets.

In order to visualize the resulting pattern geographic maps are used with the coordinates of boxes. This picture doesn’t reflect the structure of the network. More recently, a new approach for the representation of network infrastructure is appeared in sensor networks in [1-3]. Virtual coordinate systems are designed to find the shortest route based solely on intranet information. The network selected a few points, called anchors, the number of network hops is found from these anchors to each box. This number is taken as the location of this point relative to the anchor base.

Vectors defining the position of a point relative to this basis are non-negative coordinates, which makes it difficult to build the map. Special virtual conversion allows us to set the direction and pick axes. After that, each point receives a normal position on the map. Depending on the number of selected anchors we can build two-and three-dimensional maps.

The building procedure

Virtual maps can be constructed to render the most important Internet services, primarily for access to DNS servers and point of traffic exchange (Amsterdam-IX, for example). To do this, we need to select the four key DNS servers as anchors, with the help of a RIPE ATLAS system to measure the number of hops from different boxes to the selected points. Thus, we obtain the original data on the structure of the network.

After converting the virtual coordinate system, we calculate the conventional two-dimensional coordinate and construct the corresponding 2D maps. For locations of points can be seen on the availability of new servers, remote seals show the desired location for the mirror.

It seems to me important to start a discussion about what the servers selected as anchors and how to make measurements to the traceroute command issued a number of transitions to the anchors. Can you set up a RIPE ATLAS system now that it had the necessary measurements?

1.	J.N. Al-Karaki, and A.E. Kamal, “Routing techniques in wireless sensor networks: a survey,” IEEE Wireless Communications, Vol. 11, pp.6-28, Dec. 2004.

2.	Bachrach, J., and Taylor, C. Localization in sensor networks. Ch. 9, Handbook of Sensor Networks. Stojmenovic (Editor), John Wiley 2005. 

3.	D. C. Dhanapala and A. P. Jayasumana, "Topology preserving maps from virtual coordinates for wireless sensor networks," Proc. 35th IEEE Conf. on Local Computer Networks, Oct. 2010

I hope to hear from you shortly.

Sincerely yours,   Andrei Sukhov