Measurement Lab Provides Open Platform for Network Testing

The Measurement Lab, a collaborative project launched on Wednesday by the New America Foundation, the PlanetLab Consortium, and Google, will provide researchers with an open platform to host network diagnostic tools that, for example, enable users to determine the speed of their connections, detect traffic discrimination or prioritization, or troubleshoot connectivity problems. The idea is that a fast, distributed hosting platform for such tools could facilitate widespread testing and data collection about how the Internet is working. Google’s role will be to supply, separate from their network, 36 servers at 12 locations to facilitate widespread use of the tools provided. The three tools offered so far are intended for a broad range of users-from novices to technical researchers-and importantly, use of the M-Lab platform for network research is conditioned on all data being made publicly available and placed in the public domain. The laudable goal is to have better data about the nature of broadband networks, as well as increased information for users and developers about their broadband connections.

As we have noted, there is great potential benefit in transparency of network operation. Increased transparency can be a boon to competition, enabling consumers to make informed choices. It can also be a safeguard against discriminatory practices by network operators. Recall that when Comcast was interfering with BitTorrent traffic, it took months of testing (and denial) for researchers to determine what exactly the company was doing.The Measurement Lab, a collaborative project launched on Wednesday by the New America Foundation, the PlanetLab Consortium, and Google, will provide researchers with an open platform to host network diagnostic tools that, for example, enable users to determine the speed of their connections, detect traffic discrimination or prioritization, or troubleshoot connectivity problems. The idea is that a fast, distributed hosting platform for such tools could facilitate widespread testing and data collection about how the Internet is working. Google’s role will be to supply, separate from their network, 36 servers at 12 locations to facilitate widespread use of the tools provided. The three tools offered so far are intended for a broad range of users – from novices to technical researchers – and importantly, use of the M-Lab platform for network research is conditioned on all data being made publicly available and placed in the public domain.

The laudable goal is to have better data about the nature of broadband networks, as well as increased information for users and developers about their broadband connections. As we have noted, there is great potential benefit in transparency of network operation. Increased transparency can be a boon to competition, enabling consumers to make informed choices. It can also be a safeguard against discriminatory practices by network operators. Recall that when Comcast was interfering with BitTorrent traffic, it took months of testing (and denial) for researchers to determine what exactly the company was doing. Once fully exposed, Comcast owned up to the practice and agreed to stop. While upfront public disclosure by ISPs of their traffic management policies would be ideal, accelerating the public exposure process would improve this safeguard against the threat that such discriminatory practices pose to an open Internet.

Data from the M-Lab tools could prove also useful in so-called broadband mapping projects, like the one included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act working its way through Congress. Advocates and policymakers agree about the importance of broadband to economic development, but debates over the actual state of broadband deployment in the United States wage on, often ending with calls for better data about who and what constitute unserved and underserved populations. In particular, the information on broadband speeds that the M-Lab tools collect may prove useful in such efforts. Any tool that probes and monitors network activity can raise questions about user privacy: what information is collected; how much activity is monitored? Under the current configuration of M-Lab, there seems to be little cause for alarm.

The project’s steering committee has considered the potential for privacy violations, and the terms for researchers specify that the platform is meant for tools that use dummy data to evaluate a connection, not for passive network monitoring of users’ everyday Internet activity. And while the site is offered as a platform for the development of new tools with unforeseen uses, it seems participation will be closely managed by the project’s steering committee with these principles in mind. Additionally, the nature of each tool and its data collection are described on the site, and all tools must be open-source, a further check against malicious or invasive data collection. CDT has long advocated for openness, transparency, and end-user empowerment, and the Measurement Lab has the potential to provide a valuable service in generating data useful to these ends.