Internet path performance measurements using web servers

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Abstract

This paper presents a method, Pathperf, for Internet wide path performance measurements, using widely deployed web servers as vantage servers. The method works on one end of the path, locates a web server at the other end, and then downloads files from this web server to estimate the path. Module 1 collects web server information on the Internet and uses the BGP routing table along with IP geolocation information to map a unicast IP address to a nearby web server. Module 2 leverages the DNS to deliver web server information to the Pathperf clients. The method was implemented in CERNET with three months of data collection locating 3.5 million web servers in 22 656 different autonomous systems (ASes). Planetlab was used to evaluate the proximity between the end hosts and the mapped web servers in terms of latency. Tests show that in 92.5% of the cases, the latency between a host and a mapped web server was less than 16 ms. Then Pathperf was used to estimate the path bandwidth and latency, with the results compared with the Iperf and King methods. The results show that Pathperf has better availability and comparable accuracy.

Keywords network measurements link performance web server unidirectional measurements

Issue Date: 15 April 2014

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	Kun YU
	Congxiao BAO
	Xing LI

Cite this article:

Kun YU,Congxiao BAO,Xing LI. Internet path performance measurements using web servers[J]. Journal of Tsinghua University(Science and Technology), 2014, 54(4): 474-479.

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http://jst.tsinghuajournals.com/EN/ OR http://jst.tsinghuajournals.com/EN/Y2014/V54/I4/474

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