Routing and Addressing

CAIDA's current research in routing focuses on applying key theoretical results in distributed computation theory to the development of protocols that will address issues of future scalability. CAIDA also analyzes available Internet addressing and routing data in support of policy discussions regarding Internet Identifier Consumption including IPv4 address exhaustion, allocations, concentration of address ownership, and IPv6 adoption.

Topology

CAIDA's topology research includes three areas: Macroscopic Topology Measurements, AS Rank Topology Analysis of the observable ISP hierarchy, and Topology Modeling for routing research.

DNS

The Domain Name System (DNS) is a critical infrastructural component of the Internet. Our DNS research projects aim to improve the integrity of DNS monitoring and protection.

Security

Security research at CAIDA includes analysis of network-based attacks e.g. denial-of-service attacks, data hosting and provision, and measurement and statistical analysis of the trends and impact that certain Internet worms and viruses have on the global network infrastructure. We hope to develop meaningful and up-to-date quantitative characterizations of attack activity and to produce fundamental insights into the nature of malicious behavior on the Internet and consequently the best directions for mitigating that behavior.

Traffic Analysis

Workload measurements involve the collection of traffic information from a point within a network, e.g., data collected by a router or switch or by an independent device passively monitoring traffic as it traverses a network link.

• Correlating Heterogeneous Measurement Data to Achieve System-Level Analysis of Internet Traffic Trends
• CoralReef
• SDNAP Passive Data Report Collector

Performance

Performance measurements involve the introduction of traffic into the network for the purpose of monitoring delay between specific end-points. CAIDA conducts active measurement of the Internet to to produce realistic models of performance and topology.

• Skitter: Probing the Internet to Analyze Topology and Performance

Policy

Our research has led us to realize that issues of economics, ownership, and trust create obstacles to progress on most of the top problems of the Internet [see "top problems of the Internet" below]. Therefore, we added Internet economics to the list of our research efforts. We have a research proposal forthcoming in April 2006.

• "apocalypse then": ipv4 address space depletion (ARIN, Oct '05)
• [Ii]nternet [applications] drivers of growth: 2005-2015 (OIDA, Jun '05)
• top problems of the Internet and what can be done to help (AUSCERT, '05)
• top problems of the Internet and what can be done to help (CENIC, Mar '05)

Visualization

Driven by a desire for a better understanding of the Internet, CAIDA develops new visualization techniques to display Internet data.

Past Research

Since its inception in 1997, CAIDA has conducted research and analysis in many aspects of Internet engineering. This page provides references to CAIDA's past research and analysis projects, case studies, catalogs, surveys, and reports.