학술논문

On Mapping the Interconnections in Today’s Internet
Document Type
Periodical
Source
IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking IEEE/ACM Trans. Networking Networking, IEEE/ACM Transactions on. 27(5):2056-2070 Oct, 2019
Subject
Communication, Networking and Broadcast Technologies
Computing and Processing
Signal Processing and Analysis
Tools
Cloud computing
Reliability
Geology
Fabrics
Probabilistic logic
Internet topology
colocation facility
interconnection services
geography
Language
ISSN
1063-6692
1558-2566
Abstract
Internet interconnections are the means by which networks exchange traffic between one another. These interconnections are typically established in facilities that have known geographic locations, and are owned and operated by so-called colocation and interconnection services providers (e.g., Equinix, CoreSite, and EdgeConneX). These previously under-studied colocation facilities and the critical role they play in solving the notoriously difficult problem of obtaining a comprehensive view of the structure and evolution of the interconnections in today’s Internet are the focus of this paper. We present $\tt {mi}^{2}$ , a new approach for mapping Internet interconnections inside a given colocation facility. 1 We infer the existence of interconnections from localized traceroutes and use the Belief Propagation algorithm on a specially defined Markov Random Field graphical model to geolocate them to a target colocation facility. We evaluate $\tt {mi}^{2}$ by applying it initially to a small set of US-based colocation facilities. In the process, we compare our results against those obtained by two recently developed related techniques and discuss observed discrepancies that derive from how the different techniques determine the ownership of border routers. As part of our validation approach, we also identify drastic changes in today’s Internet interconnection ecosystem (e.g., new infrastructures in the form of “cloud exchanges” that offer new types of interconnections called “virtual private interconnections”), and discuss their wide-ranging implications for obtaining an accurate and comprehensive map of the Internet’s interconnection fabric. 1 An open-source prototype of $\tt {mi}^{2}$ is available at our project website located at https://onrg.gitlab.io/projects/mii