Internet Measurements: a Hands-on Introduction

Description

This course is a hands-on introduction to internet measurements. You will learn about measuring the structure of the internet and the routes through that structure, about delays, losses and connectivity, about bandwidth, and about traffic.

You will see how to make these measurements, and you will understand what you can and cannot learn from them. We teach you how to run measurements from any computer. This course provides you with the ability to launch measurements on PlanetLab Europe, a platform consisting of internet connected servers at over 150 locations around the continent.

Format

This course (when delivered as a MOOC on FUN) is structured in 5 weeks. Each week, around 6 course sequences are be available with video lectures, supplementary ressources, associated quiz and applicative exercises.

Requirements

You will be ready for this course if you have the level of understanding of internet technology that comes from an advanced undergraduate course or a first Masters course in networking, or equivalent professional experience.

Course syllabus

Part 1: Introduction

Part 2: Topology and routes

Part 3: Connectivity, losses, latency, and geolocation

Part 4: Bandwidth

Part 5: Traffic Measurements

Suggested readings

    - Mark Crovella & Balachander Krishnamurthy. Internet Measurement: infrastructure, traffic and applications. 2006
    - Olivier Bonaventure. Computer Networking: Principles, Protocols and Practice. 2011

     

    The material of this course comes from a MOOC delivered by Inria on France Université Numérique : https://www.fun-mooc.fr/courses/inria/41011/session01/about

     

     

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    Overall course conclusion
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    9 vidéos

    5. Traffic Measurements

    • FRIEDMAN Timur
    • TEIXEIRA Renata
    This is the final part of the course on Internet measurements. The first parts of this course have focused on active probing to learn properties of network paths. This last part will instead focus on passive measurements. We’ll learn methods to measure the traffic traversing a network. We’ll discuss how to measure traffic at three different granularities: IP packets, network flows, and network interface. We’ll work with two popular tools for packet capture and analysis: tcpdump and Wireshark. We’ll provide some packet traces collected with tcpdump for you to analyze in the end-of-week exercise and you’ll get the chance to analyze your own traffic in the lab exercises. You will see how the applications and services you use on the Internet work by inspecting their traffic. As we discussed in part 1, inspecting network traffi
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    6. Conclusion
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    4. Bandwidth

    • FRIEDMAN Timur
    • TEIXEIRA Renata
    This part will address the concept of bandwidth, or the "speed" of network paths. Defining and measuring bandwidth is particularly challenging. We'll go over established definitions of bandwith metrics and the limitations of these definitions. Then, we'll cover methods to measure bandwidth that are based on flooding network paths. The flooding method underlies most of the tools we use today. We’ll discuss how Speedtest works and how to configure our own bandwidth tests using iPerf. Flooding tools create a lot of measurement overhead on the measured network paths. We’ll end the week with a discussion of more advanced methods from the research community to measure bandwidth with lower overhead. Table of contents 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Definitions of bandwidth metrics A. The basics B. Limitations 4.3 End-to-end measurement approaches
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    1. Introduction
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    9 vidéos

    3. Connectivity, losses, latency, and geolocation

    • FRIEDMAN Timur
    • TEIXEIRA Renata
    In this third part, we will address several concepts: connectivity, losses, latency, and geolocation. We will look at how to test whether two points in the network are connected, and how to learn the amount of time that it takes for packets to travel from one host to the other (and back), among other things. Table of contents 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Connectivity 3.3 Losses 3.4 Latency A. Introduction B. Components C. Clocks D. Tools 3.5 Geolocation 3.6 Conclusion
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    3A. Traceroutes - Basics
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    2. Topology and Routes

    • FRIEDMAN Timur
    • TEIXEIRA Renata
    After an introductory part of background on Internet measurements, this second part focuses on network topology and routing. Timur will teach you how to measure the network's structure and the paths that packets take. You will be looking at two types of measurements: BGP updates, and Traceroute. Table of contents 2.1 Topology and routes A. Introduction B. Questions 2.2 BGP updates A. Basics B. Limits 2.3 Traceroutes A. Basics B. Limits C. Load balancing D. The tool 2.4 Conclusion
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    7. Conclusion
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    1. Introduction to Internet Measurements

    • FRIEDMAN Timur
    • TEIXEIRA Renata
    Welcome! In this course, you will learn the basics of internet measurements and you will be able to conduct your own measurements. The instructors, Timur Friedman and Renata Teixeira, will guide you step-by-step through four areas of internet measurements: network topology and routing; connectivity, losses, latency and geolocation; bandwidth; and traffic measurements. This first part is an introduction to the course. Table of contents 1.1 Mooc Presentation 1.2 Background on Internet infrastructure and traffic 1.3 Type of measurements 1.4 Measurement platforms A. Overview B PlanetLab 1.5 Sound measurement practices 1.6 Ethical issues 1.7 Conclusion
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