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Layout Showing the Major ISPs: Internet Atlas Gallery
Layout Showing the Major ISPs
Bill Cheswick, Bell Labs and Hal Burch, CMU
Lucent Technologies Bell Labs Innovations
Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) Computer Science Dept.
URL: https://www.bell-labs.com/about/history/#gref
Frequent traceroute-style path probes are used to build a tree showing the paths to most of the nets on the Internet. Once the layout is computed, the map can be colored to show geographical clues, network capacity, or IP addresses.
In this example, color distinguishes different ISPs.
Additional Content
Layout Showing the Major ISPs
Bill Cheswick, Bell Labs and Hal Burch, CMU
Lucent Technologies Bell Labs Innovations
Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) Computer Science Dept.
URL:
https://www.bell-labs.com/about/history/#gref
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About the Visualization |
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Visualization Techniques:
(Technique1):
Graph layout treats data as a physical system and finds the set of node
positions that minimizes the total energy. Any two nodes that do not share an
edge are connected, via infinite strings, to a spring. If the nodes are
further apart
than the spring's resting length, no force is applied. If the nodes are closer
than the spring's resting length, the spring is compressed and the nodes are
pushed apart. Minimum total energy is found using a gradient descent
algorithm.
(Technique2):
Graph layout occurs one layer at a time starting with closest links, and then
adding one hop at a time.
(Technique3): A decision is made whether to show all the paths or just
the minimum distance spanning tree (considering only the shortest path to
each destination).
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Key Visualization Mappings:
(Mapping1): Color groups each ISP. (Layout can be colored in many ways: geographic region,
network capacity, distance from test host, IP address, etc.)
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Visualization Tools:
(Tool1) Standard Unix text filters.
(Tool2): Proprietary graph layout and mapping program.
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Layout Showing the Major ISPs
Bill Cheswick, Bell Labs and Hal Burch, CMU
Lucent Technologies Bell Labs Innovations
Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) Computer Science Dept.
URL: http://www.cs.bell-labs.com/who/ches/map/gallery/index.html
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Credits / Contact Info |
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Authors:
- William R. Cheswick
- Hal Burch
- Steve Branigan
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Paper:
"Mapping and Visualizing the Internet" Bill Cheswick, Bell Laboratories;
Hal Burch, Carnegie Mellon University; Steve Branigan, Bell Laboratories.
Proceedings of the USENIX Annual 2000 Technical Conference. San Diego, CA June 18-23, 2000.
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Contact Info:
For more information, send email to:
ches @ bell-labs.com
Poster size maps are available at:
http://www.peacockmaps.com
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Layout Showing the Major ISPs
Bill Cheswick, Bell Labs and Hal Burch, CMU
Lucent Technologies Bell Labs Innovations
Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) Computer Science Dept.
URL:
https://www.bell-labs.com/about/history/#gref
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About the Data |
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Data Sources:
(Source1): All registered target networks from
Merit's routing arbiter database at ftp://ftp.merit.edu/routing.arbiter/radb/dbase/.
(Source2)
Full network scan (this graph uses data from 28 June 1999).
First, possible host names are generated
for all possible destinations
obtained from the routing arbiter database (Source1). Heuristics are used
to pick an IP address that is likely to be in use. A slow host scan over
time is then made until a responsive host IP address is found.
Finally, a set of UDP
probe packets are sent to each of these hosts, where successive packets
increment TTL by 1 until
a) the host is reached, b) an ICMP error is returned, or
c) a hop is reached that
doesn't respond to several pings.
(Source3)
Daily DNS reverse PTR lookups on any new addresses discovered (approximately 5,000/day).
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Data Specification:
(Data1)
Path database: Simple text format containing one
line per target network.
First field is the target network in familiar form: 135.104.0.0/16.
Remaining fields are in the form: name=[date:]value, and are used to
track:
- Path: a comma-separated list of IP numbers, followed by a status
code unless the path successfully reached the target.
- Probe Date: Date of most recent probe
- Target: date of first probe and IP address of responsive host
- Whiner: date and email address of person requesting that this
network not be scanned
(Data2) Label Database: Simple text format. One entry per line
containing an IP number, a label, and the date it was collected, separated
by white space.
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Data Aggregation:
(Aggregate1): Various groupings of IP addresses can be derived.
For example, matching IP address octets to top-level domain can show approximate
country location, or, in this example, IP address octets are matched to second-level domain to show ISP names.
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Data Filters:
(Filter1): Edges may be removed.
(Filter2): Data may be reduced to show only shortest paths.
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Layout Showing the Major ISPs
Bill Cheswick, Bell Labs and Hal Burch, CMU
Lucent Technologies Bell Labs Innovations
Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) Computer Science Dept.
URL:
https://www.bell-labs.com/about/history/#gref
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Evaluation |
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Strengths:
(Strength1): It is possible to see multiple groupings at the same
time.
(Strength2): Collected data is available for analysis over time.
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Issues:
(Issue1): Graph shows IP path connectivity only, not actual
traffic on physical links.
(Issue2): Graph reflects only outgoing packet paths. The incoming
path is often different, as ISP interconnect agreements often divert traffic
through different connections.
(Issue3): Graph doesn't include networks announced in the core
routing tables but not contained in the routing arbiter database. Preliminary
analysis suggests that these omissions may account for 20% of IP networks.
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