Seminar - Internet Measurements (2017)

Dr. Vaibhav Bajpai

The Internet is one of the most complex systems the human race has engineered. However, this increasing complexity has made it remarkably difficult for engineers to not only understand but also reliably predict its behavior today. It becomes intangible to identify improvements to a system when many aspects of the system become opaque to its designers.

Internet measurements has emerged as a new field in our era that helps to identify the properties of the Internet so that we are in a better position to improve it for future generations. Measurements are used today to not only isolate network failures but also to ascertain network performance and study the natural evolution of this running system. This is the reason why measurements are starting to get actively used by standardisation bodies to inform protocol engineering and design. They are also actively used by network operators and content providers to help improve the quality of experience of their customers. Measurements are also becoming input for regulators that shape future broadband policies.

In this seminar, we will explore seminal papers in the field of Internet measurements. These papers will help teach us techniques and tools that are used to reveal the properties of the Internet today. 

(Recommended) requirements:

The participants are expected to have taken an undergraduate-level course on computer networks. 

Relevant Conferences: 

  • Internet Measurement Conference (IMC)
  • Passive and Active Measurement Conference (PAM)
  • Traffic Monitoring and Analysis Workshop (TMA) 

Time and Location: 

Thursdays (14:00 - 16:00) in Room 01.07.023.

Schedule: 

Date Presenter
03.02.2017 (10:00 - 12:00) Pre-course Meeting
27.04.2017 Introduction / Paper Allocations
04.05.2017  
11.05.2017 Away (IM conference)
18.05.2017

Johannes Zirngibl - Measuring IPv6 adoption

Victor Aguboshim - Resilience of Deployed TCP to Blind Attacks

Magdalena Pröbstl - A Multi-perspective Analysis of Carrier-Grade NAT Deployment

25.05.2017 Holiday (Ascension Day)
01.06.2017

Markus Ansorge - Layer 1-Informed Internet Topology Measurement

Alexandros Tsalidis - Is it still possible to extend TCP?

08.06.2017 QUIC Interim
15.06.2017 Holiday (Corpus Christi)
22.06.2017

Daniel Götz - A First Look at Performance in Mobile Virtual Network Operators

Muhammad Prasetya - Neither Snow Nor Rain: An Empirical Analysis of Email Security

David Labode - Timeouts: Beware Surprisingly High Delay

29.06.2017  
06.07.2017

Ahmad Tahir - Confused, timid, and unstable: Picking a video streaming rate is hard

Franz Schneider - InterTubes: A Study of the US Long-haul Fiber-optic Infrastructure

Lennart Weller - Mapping the Expansion of Google’s Serving Infrastructure

13.07.2017  
20.07.2017 IETF Week
27.07.2017  

 

Review Form:

The review form is available here

Pre-course Meeting:

Friday: 03.02.2017 (10:00 - 12:00) in Room 01.07.023: Slides

Topics:

The topics of interest include (but are not limited) to the following -

Measurements at TCP/IP layers
Measurement Platforms
Tools

Diagnostic tools

Internet-wide scanning

General Reading

Learning outcomes (study goals):

The participants will learn how to read papers. They will learn the purpose but also the methodology and tone of writing good paper reviews. Participants will also learn how to present a technical paper in a conference-style setting. This will involve learning to not only stay within time limits of a presentation slot but also to appreciate the Q/A session at the end.

Further Reading: How to read a paper.

Teaching and learning methods: 

  1. A written paper review before the presentation (20% grade)
  2. Weekly presentations during the semester (70% grade)
  3. Group discussions (10% grade)

Each participant presents 1 paper during the course of the seminar. To ensure everybody has read the paper, participants that witness the presentation are required to hand in a review of the paper (template of the review form is available here) being presented. Each participant should have reviewed 4 papers by the end of the semester. Presentations should be planned for 20 minutes. A presentation in the beginning of the seminar is planned to provide pointers to participants on how to review measurement papers.

Contact: