Projects
NorNet

Having stable and uninterrupted Internet connectivity is becoming increasingly important, particularly with regard to applications like cloud computing, service as a platform and many others. Connectivity problems could e.g. be caused by a hardware failure or a natural disaster. In order to improve the robustness of Internet connectivity, it is obvious to connect endpoints to multiple Internet service providers (ISP) simultaneously. This property is denoted as multi-homing. For example, Transport Layer protocols like the Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) or Session Layer frameworks like Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) make use of multi-homing to support availability-critical applications.
However, while in theory a failure of one ISP should be independent of other ISPs, it is not really known what happens in practise in today’s commercial networks. It is evident that there are hidden dependencies among ISPs. Also, what about connectivity problems due to intentional malicious behaviour, i.e. targeted attacks on such systems? How can multi-path transport – e.g. with Multi-Path TCP (MPTCP) or Concurrent Multipath Transfer for SCTP (CMT-SCTP) – efficiently and fairly make use of multi-homing? Research in realistic Internet setups is clearly necessary, in order to answer these open questions. For that purpose, the NorNet project is building up a multi-homed testbed distributed all over the country of Norway. This programmable testbed is to be used for measurements and experimental networking research. It is built and operated by the Simula Research Laboratory and financed by Forskningsrådet (the Research Council of Norway) through their INFRASTRUKTUR program (project number 208798/F50).
NorNet has two main components: NorNet Core and NorNet Edge. NorNet Core consists of more than tvelve programmable sites, each multi-homed to several network providers. NorNet Edge consists of several hundreds of smaller nodes that are connected to all mobile broadband providers in Norway. Together, these two components offer a unique platform for experimental networking research. NorNet is made available to the Norwegian and international networking research community.
NorNet builds up a large-scale, real-world Internet testbed with multi-homing capability and provides it to the network research community. The final goal is to allow for research (and also to contribute to such research) that improves the Internet of today to provide the best possible performance to network users, regardless where they are, what kind of applications they run and when they use the network.
Funding source:
Forskningsrådet (the Research Council of Norway), INFRASTRUKTUR program (project number 208798/F50).
Partners:
Simula is the only research partner, but all interested researchers can use the testbed. We have cooperations with multiple universities and other projects.
Publications for NorNet
Technical reports
Norske mobilnett i 2021 – Tilstandsrapport fra Centre for Resilient Networks and Applications
Oslo/Norway: Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Centre for Resilient Networks and Applications (CRNA), 2022.Status: Published
Norske mobilnett i 2021 – Tilstandsrapport fra Centre for Resilient Networks and Applications
Denne rapporten er utarbeidet av Center for Resilient Networks and Applications (CRNA), som er en del av Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering. CRNA driver grunn- leggende forskning innen robusthet og sikker- het i nettverk med mandat og finansiering fra Kommunal- og moderniseringsdepartementet. Senteret produserer en årlig rapport om tilstan- den i norske mobilnett. Årets rapport er den niende i rekken.
Afilliation | Communication Systems |
Project(s) | NorNet, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, SMIL: SimulaMet Interoperability Lab |
Publication Type | Technical reports |
Year of Publication | 2022 |
Publisher | Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Centre for Resilient Networks and Applications (CRNA) |
Place Published | Oslo/Norway |
ISBN Number | 82-92593-36-5 |
URL | https://www.simula.no/sites/default/files/norske_mobilnett_i_2021.pdf |
Book
AI and ML – Enablers for Beyond 5G Networks
Online: 5G PPP Technology Board, 2021.Status: Published
AI and ML – Enablers for Beyond 5G Networks
This white paper on AI and ML as enablers of beyond 5G (B5G) networks is based on contributions from almost 20 5G PPP projects, coordinated through the 5G PPP Technology Board, that research, implement and validate 5G and B5G network systems. The paper introduces the main relevant mechanisms in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), currently investigated and exploited for enhancing 5G and B5G networks.
Afilliation | Communication Systems |
Project(s) | SMIL: SimulaMet Interoperability Lab, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, 5G-VINNI: 5G Verticals INNovation Infrastructure , NorNet, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications |
Publication Type | Book |
Year of Publication | 2021 |
Date Published | 05/2021 |
Publisher | 5G PPP Technology Board |
Place Published | Online |
URL | https://5g-ppp.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/AI-MLforNetworks-v1-0.pdf |
DOI | 10.5281/zenodo.429989 |
Journal Article
A Multi-Parameter Comprehensive Optimized Algorithm for MPTCP Networks
Electronics 10, no. 16 (2021).Status: Published
A Multi-Parameter Comprehensive Optimized Algorithm for MPTCP Networks
With the increasing deployment of the Multi-Path Transmission Control Protocol (MPTCP) in heterogeneous network setups, there is a need to understand how its performance is affected in practice both by traditional factors such as round-trip time measurements, buffer predictive modelling and by calculating the impact factors of network subflows. Studies have shown that path management and packet scheduling have a large effect on overall performance and required limited resources with different congestion control parameters. Unfortunately, most of the previous studies have focused almost exclusively on the improvement of a single parameter, without a holistic view. To deal with this issue effectively, this paper puts forward a Multi-Parameter Comprehensive Optimized Algorithm (MPCOA), which can find the smaller buffer size and select the appropriate congestion control and path management algorithm on the premise of ensuring larger throughput. Experiments of three scenarios show that MPCOA can save the buffer space and subflow resources, and achieve high throughput. Meanwhile, a set of quantitative improvement results given by MPCOA is convenient for us to evaluate the quality of MPTCP network, and provide reference for our ongoing future work, like for 4G/5G, Internet of Things and Star Link networks.
Afilliation | Communication Systems |
Project(s) | The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, NorNet, SMIL: SimulaMet Interoperability Lab, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, GAIA |
Publication Type | Journal Article |
Year of Publication | 2021 |
Journal | Electronics |
Volume | 10 |
Issue | 16 |
Date Published | 08/2021 |
Publisher | MDPI |
Place Published | Basel/Switzerland |
ISSN | 2079-9292 |
Keywords | Buffer Size, congestion control, MPCOA, Multi-Path TCP (MPTCP), Path Management |
URL | https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9292/10/16/1942/pdf |
DOI | 10.3390/electronics10161942 |
Proceedings, refereed
A Demo of Workload Offloading in Mobile Edge Computing Using the Reliable Server Pooling Framework
In Proceedings of the 46th IEEE Conference on Local Computer Networks (LCN). Edmonton, Alberta, Canada: IEEE Computer Society, 2021.Status: Published
A Demo of Workload Offloading in Mobile Edge Computing Using the Reliable Server Pooling Framework
Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) places cloud resources nearby the user, to provide support for latency-sensitive applications. Offloading workload from resource-constrained mobile devices (such as smartphones) into the cloud ecosystem is becoming increasingly popular. In this demonstration, we show how to deploy a mobile network (with OpenAirInterface and Open Source MANO), as well as to adapt the Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) framework to efficiently manage MEC as well as multi-cloud resources to run an interactive demo application.
Afilliation | Communication Systems |
Project(s) | SMIL: SimulaMet Interoperability Lab, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, MELODIC: Multi-cloud Execution-ware for Large-scale Optimised Data-Intensive Computing, 5G-VINNI: 5G Verticals INNovation Infrastructure , The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, NorNet |
Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
Year of Publication | 2021 |
Conference Name | Proceedings of the 46th IEEE Conference on Local Computer Networks (LCN) |
Date Published | 10/2021 |
Publisher | IEEE Computer Society |
Place Published | Edmonton, Alberta, Canada |
Keywords | Demonstration, Evolved Packet Core (EPC), Mobile Edge Computing (MEC), Multi-Cloud Computing, Network Function Virtualisation (NFV), Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) |
URL | https://www.ieeelcn.org/lcn46demos/Demo_4_1570754367.pdf |
An Exposed Closed-Loop Model for Customer-Driven Service Assurance Automation
In 2021 Joint European Conference on Networks and Communications & 6G Summit (EuCNC/6G Summit). Porto, Portugal: IEEE Computer Society, 2021.Status: Published
An Exposed Closed-Loop Model for Customer-Driven Service Assurance Automation
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is widely applied in telecommunications to enable zero-touch automation in network operation and service management. Due to the high complexity, deploying advanced AI mechanisms is not always feasible inside the operator’s network domains. Instead, via service exposures, it becomes possible for vertical customers to integrate their external AI solutions with the network and service management system to form a closed loop (CL) and contribute to the automation process. In this paper, we propose an exposed CL model based on service exposure and apply it to automate service assurance tasks like autoscaling in a network function virtualization (NFV) system orchestrated by ETSI Open Source MANO (OSM). A testbed is built to validate the model. It collects monitoring data from the OSM monitoring module and external monitoring tools. Vertical customers drive and customize their AI solutions to aggregate these data sets and run analytics to detect and predict anomalies prepared for scaling. Preliminary analysis demonstrates the added values of customer-driven monitoring and analysis via the exposed CL.
Afilliation | Communication Systems |
Project(s) | NorNet, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, SMIL: SimulaMet Interoperability Lab, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, 5G-VINNI: 5G Verticals INNovation Infrastructure |
Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
Year of Publication | 2021 |
Conference Name | 2021 Joint European Conference on Networks and Communications & 6G Summit (EuCNC/6G Summit) |
Pagination | 419–424 |
Date Published | 06/2021 |
Publisher | IEEE Computer Society |
Place Published | Porto, Portugal |
ISBN Number | 978-1-6654-1526-2 |
Keywords | Autonomous Management, Closed Loop, Machine learning, Monitoring, Service Exposure |
DOI | 10.1109/EuCNC/6GSummit51104.2021.9482533 |
Reliable Server Pooling Based Workload Offloading with Mobile Edge Computing: A Proof-of-Concept
In Advanced Information Networking and Applications (AINA 2021). Springer, 2021.Status: Published
Reliable Server Pooling Based Workload Offloading with Mobile Edge Computing: A Proof-of-Concept
In recent times, mobile broadband devices have become almost ubiquitous. However, battery-powered devices (such as smartphones), have limitations on energy consumption, computation power and storage space. Cloud computing, and in particular with the upcoming 5G networks, Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) can provide compute and storage services at the vicinity of the user (with a low communication latency). However, the complexity lies in how to simply and efficiently realise MEC services, with the auxiliary public (multi-)cloud resources? In this paper, we propose a proof-of-concept of using Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) as a light-weight layer of managing resource pools and handling application sessions with these pools. Our approach is simple, efficient, has low overhead and is available as open-source. Here, we demonstrate the usefulness of our approach by measuring in a test setup, with a 4G testbed connected to MEC and public multi-cloud resources.
Afilliation | Communication Systems |
Project(s) | NorNet, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, SMIL: SimulaMet Interoperability Lab, 5G-VINNI: 5G Verticals INNovation Infrastructure , Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, MELODIC: Multi-cloud Execution-ware for Large-scale Optimised Data-Intensive Computing |
Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
Year of Publication | 2021 |
Conference Name | Advanced Information Networking and Applications (AINA 2021) |
Pagination | 582-593 |
Publisher | Springer |
Keywords | 5G, Evolved Packet Core (EPC), Mobile Edge Computing (MEC), Multi-Cloud Computing, Network Function Virtualisation (NFV), Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) |
Talk, keynote
NorNet at Hainan University in 2021: From Simulations to Real-World Internet Measurements for Multi-Path Transport Research — A Remote Presentation
In Hainan University, Haikou, Hainan/People's Republic of China. Haikou, Hainan/People's Republic of China, 2021.Status: Published
NorNet at Hainan University in 2021: From Simulations to Real-World Internet Measurements for Multi-Path Transport Research — A Remote Presentation
A large fraction of the communication in the Internet is handled by the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). Since the first deployments of this protocol more than 30 years ago, the spectrum of applications as well as the structure of the network have developed at a fast pace. For example, today's network devices, like smartphones and laptops — i.e. particularly many devices in the area of mobile computing — frequently have an interesting property: the existence of multiple IP addresses (IPv4 and/or IPv6). The addresses may even change due to mobility. This property, denoted as multi-homing, can be utilised for multi-path transport, i.e. the simultaneous usage of multiple paths in the network to improve performance. Multi-path transport is a hot topic in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), which is the standardisation organisation for the Internet. This talk provides an overview of the work in the areas of multi-homing and multi-path transport, with focus on the area of the protocols TCP and Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) with their experimental extensions Multi-Path TCP (MPTCP) and Concurrent Multi-Path Transfer for SCTP (CMT-SCTP). It particularly shows the sequence of research and selected results, beginning from a simple simulation model, via lab setups and small Internet scenarios, up to the large-scale, international testbed project NorNet. NorNet, and particularly its landline network part NorNet Core, is furthermore described in some detail. Based on NorNet, it is finally possible to validate simulation results in real-world, multi-homed networks, in order to provide valuable input to the ongoing IETF standardisation processes of MPTCP and CMT-SCTP. Particularly, it will also show how the NorNet testbed can be utilised for research at Hainan University in 2021.
Afilliation | Communication Systems |
Project(s) | NorNet, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, SMIL: SimulaMet Interoperability Lab |
Publication Type | Talk, keynote |
Year of Publication | 2021 |
Location of Talk | Hainan University, Haikou, Hainan/People's Republic of China |
Date Published | 01/2021 |
Place Published | Haikou, Hainan/People's Republic of China |
Keywords | Introduction, Multi-Homing, NorNet, NorNet Core, NorNet Edge, Status, Testbed |
Talks, contributed
Demonstration of P4-Based In-Band Telemetry for OSM-Orchestrated 4G/5G Testbeds
In OSM #12 Ecosystem Day (virtual), 2021.Status: Published
Demonstration of P4-Based In-Band Telemetry for OSM-Orchestrated 4G/5G Testbeds
The SimulaMet OpenAirInterface VNF provides an OpenAirInterface-based Enhanced Packet Core (EPC), with separate VDUs for HSS, MME, SPGW-C and SPGW-U. To allow for advanced in-band telemetry, we have extended this VNF to add switches with Programming Protocol-independent Packet Processors (P4) to all relevant virtual links inside the EPC. P4 allows full programability of the packet forwarding behaviour, and especially allows to extend packets with additional information for in-band telemetry. This information can be read by other P4 instances to allow for fine-granular performance data collection. In this presentation and live demonstration, we would like show the solutions chosen to efficiently use OSM for handling our extended EPC, and in particular we would like to highlight the possibilities to perform P4-based in-band telemetry to evaluate the performance of the mobile network. Finally, we would also like to show the audience a live demo of our testbed setup with telemetry collection.
Afilliation | Communication Systems |
Project(s) | 5G-VINNI: 5G Verticals INNovation Infrastructure , NorNet, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering |
Publication Type | Talks, contributed |
Year of Publication | 2021 |
Location of Talk | OSM #12 Ecosystem Day (virtual) |
Type of Talk | Demo presentation |
Keywords | 5G, In-Band Telemetry, Network Function Virtualisation, Open Source MANO, OpenAirInterface, P4 |
Talks, invited
NorNet at Hainan University in 2021: Getting Started with NorNet Core — A Remote Tutorial
In Haikou, Hainan/People's Republic of China. Haikou, Hainan/People's Republic of China, 2021.Status: Published
NorNet at Hainan University in 2021: Getting Started with NorNet Core — A Remote Tutorial
This tutorial — presented for students at the College of Information Science and Technology (CIST) at Hainan University — provides an introduction on how to get access to the NorNet Core testbed as well as how to run experiments in the testbed in 2021.
Afilliation | Communication Systems |
Project(s) | NorNet, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, SMIL: SimulaMet Interoperability Lab |
Publication Type | Talks, invited |
Year of Publication | 2021 |
Location of Talk | Haikou, Hainan/People's Republic of China |
Place Published | Haikou, Hainan/People's Republic of China |
Keywords | Multi-Homing, Multi-Path Transport, NorNet, NorNet Core, Testbed, Tutorial |
Journal Article
On the Usability of Transport Protocols other than TCP: A Home Gateway and Internet Path Traversal Study
Computer Networks 173 (2020).Status: Published
On the Usability of Transport Protocols other than TCP: A Home Gateway and Internet Path Traversal Study
Network APIs are moving towards protocol agility, where applications express their needs but not a static protocol binding, and it is up to the layer below the API to choose a suitable protocol. The IETF Transport Services (TAPS) Working Group is standardizing a protocol-independent transport API and offering guidance to implementers. Apple’s recent “Network.framework” is specifically designed to allow such late and dynamic binding of protocols. When the network stack autonomously chooses and configures a protocol, it must first test which protocols are locally available and which work end-to-end (“protocol racing”). For this, it is important to know the set of available options, and which protocols should be tried first: Does it make sense to offer unchecked payload delivery, as with UDP-Lite? Is a UDP-based protocol like QUIC always a better choice, or should native SCTP be tried? This paper develops answers to such questions via (i) a NAT study in a local testbed, (ii) bidirectional Internet tests, (iii) a large scale Internet measurement campaign. The examined protocols are: SCTP, DCCP, UDP-Lite, UDP with a zero checksum and three different UDP encapsulations.
Afilliation | Communication Systems |
Project(s) | NorNet, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, NEAT: A New, Evolutive API and Transport-Layer Architecture for the Internet |
Publication Type | Journal Article |
Year of Publication | 2020 |
Journal | Computer Networks |
Volume | 173 |
Date Published | 05/2020 |
Publisher | Elsevier |
ISSN | 1389-1286 |
Keywords | DCCP, Internet, NAT, Protocol Testing, SCTP, UDP-Lite |
DOI | 10.1016/j.comnet.2020.107211 |
Antikraak
IP squatting is the hijacking of unallocated IP address space by malicious networks that use this attack to number botnet command and control hosts, and spam relays with temporary addresses, in order to hinder their detectability and trackability. Squatting has been used as an effective cloaking technique because it did not affect legitimate traffic to raise alerts. However, the IPv4 address space depletion makes squatting much harder, leading attackers to resort to more sophisticated techniques. In particular, our preliminary analysis shows increasing abuse against two types of IP ranges, IXP prefixes and transferred IP prefixes, that allow hijacking attacks with similar characteristics to squatting. IXP prefixes are usually not advertised in the global routing system since they are not allocated to end hosts. Therefore, IXP prefix hijacking does not affect existing Internet paths. IP transfers create a window of uncertainty about the legitimate ownership, which adversaries try to exploit. These bogus advertisements are often realized as spear attacks, namely highly targeted bogus advertisements to evade detection. We aim to develop the necessary techniques to enable predictive capabilities in the detection and mitigation of these emerging threats that currently cannot be addressed by the existing tools.
Funding:
RIPE NCC
Partners:
Lancaster University
AMX-IX
Publications
Poster
A decade of evolution in telecommunications infrastructure
In Poster: A decade of evolution in telecommunications infrastructure. IMC 21: IMC , 2021.Status: Published
A decade of evolution in telecommunications infrastructure
Characterizing countries’ standing in terms of the maturity of their telecommunications infrastructure is paramount to inform policy and investments. Here, we use a broad set of features to group countries according to the state of their infrastructures and track how this has changed between 2010 and 2020. While a few nations continue to dominate, the membership of this club has changed with several European countries leaving
Afilliation | Communication Systems |
Project(s) | GAIA, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications |
Publication Type | Poster |
Year of Publication | 2021 |
Secondary Title | Poster: A decade of evolution in telecommunications infrastructure |
Date Published | 10/2021 |
Publisher | IMC |
Place Published | IMC 21 |
Type of Work | Internet measurements |
Journal Article
A Multi-Perspective Study of Internet Performance during the COVID-19 Outbreak
Arxiv (2021).Status: Published
A Multi-Perspective Study of Internet Performance during the COVID-19 Outbreak
Afilliation | Communication Systems |
Project(s) | Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, GAIA |
Publication Type | Journal Article |
Year of Publication | 2021 |
Journal | Arxiv |
Publisher | Arxiv |
Place Published | Arrxiv.org |
Keywords | COVID, Internet, network |
DOI | 10.48550/arXiv.2101.05030 |
Proceedings, refereed
A first look at the misuse and abuse of the IPv4 Transfer Market
In International Conference on Passive and Active Network Measurement (PAM). Springer, 2020.Status: Published
A first look at the misuse and abuse of the IPv4 Transfer Market
The depletion of the unallocated IPv4 addresses and the slowpace of IPv6 deployment have given rise to the IPv4 transfer market, the trading of allocated IPv4 prefixes between organizations. Despite the policies established by RIRs to regulate the IPv4 transfer market, IPv4 transfers pose an opportunity for malicious networks, such as spammers and bulletproof ASes, to bypass reputational penalties by obtaining“clean” IPv4 address space or by offloading blacklisted addresses. Addi-tionally, IP transfers create a window of uncertainty about the legitimateownership of prefixes, which leads to inconsistencies in WHOIS recordsand routing advertisements. In this paper we provide the first detailed study of how transferred IPv4 prefixes are misused in the wild, by synthesizing an array of longitudinal IP blacklists, honeypot data, and AS reputation lists. Our findings yield evidence that transferred IPv4 addressblocks are used by malicious networks to address botnets and fraudulentsites in much higher rates compared to non-transferred addresses, while the timing of the attacks indicate efforts to evade filtering mechanisms.
Afilliation | Communication Systems |
Project(s) | Antikraak, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, GAIA |
Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
Year of Publication | 2020 |
Conference Name | International Conference on Passive and Active Network Measurement (PAM) |
Pagination | 88-103 |
Publisher | Springer |
Keywords | BGP, Blacklists., IPv4 transfers, Routing |
DOI | 10.1007/978-3-030-44081-7_6 |
An agent-based model of IPv6 adoption
In IFIP Networking Conference (Networking). IEEE, 2020.Status: Published
An agent-based model of IPv6 adoption
Despite having been proposed more than 20 years ago, IPv6 deployment has been very slow. The imminent depletion of IPv4 address space has recently motivated stakeholders to actively promote IPv6. These efforts, however, have only led to a relatively modest increase in the overall uptake. This outcome is expected given the complexity of the adoption landscape and the involved economic intricacies. Aiming to offer better insights into this process, we present the first data driven computational cost centric model of IPv6 adoption. Our model is grounded in empirical data yet parsimonious that is it focuses only on factors that are key to the modelled transition. We validate our model using historical snapshots of addresses allocations and then use it to explore a set of what if scenarios. Our findings paint a bleak picture for IPv6 adoption, predicting it to be decades away.
Afilliation | Communication Systems |
Project(s) | NorNet, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, GAIA |
Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
Year of Publication | 2020 |
Conference Name | IFIP Networking Conference (Networking) |
Pagination | 361-369 |
Publisher | IEEE |
URL | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9142758 |
On the Accuracy of Country-Level IP Geolocation
In Applied Networking Research Workshop (ANRW). Madrid/Spain: ACM, 2020.Status: Published
On the Accuracy of Country-Level IP Geolocation
The proliferation of online services comprised of globally spread microservices has security and performance implications. Understanding the underlying physical paths connecting end points has become important. This paper investigates the accuracy of commonly used IP geolocation approaches in geolocating end-to-end IP paths. To this end, we perform a controlled measurement study to collect IP level paths. We find that existing databases tend to geolocate IPs that belong to networks with global presence and those move between networks erroneously. A small percentage of IP geolocation disagreement between databases results in a significant disagreement when geolocating end-to-end paths. Geolocating one week of RIPE traceroute data validates our observations.
Afilliation | Communication Systems |
Project(s) | GAIA, NorNet, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering |
Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
Year of Publication | 2020 |
Conference Name | Applied Networking Research Workshop (ANRW) |
Date Published | 07/2020 |
Publisher | ACM |
Place Published | Madrid/Spain |
ISBN Number | 978-1-4503-8039-3 |
Keywords | Geolocation Approaches, Geolocation Databases, IP Geolocation |
DOI | 10.1145/3404868.3406664 |
Miscellaneous
How accurate are IP geolocation services?
APNIC blog, 2020.Status: Published
How accurate are IP geolocation services?
Afilliation | Communication Systems |
Project(s) | The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, GAIA |
Publication Type | Miscellaneous |
Year of Publication | 2020 |
Publisher | APNIC blog |
URL | https://blog.apnic.net/2020/09/15/how-accurate-are-ip-geolocation-services/ |
PhD Thesis
Monitoring and Understanding Ipv6 Adoption
In The University of Oslo. Vol. PhD. Department of Informatics, University of Oslo, 2019.Status: Published
Monitoring and Understanding Ipv6 Adoption
Afilliation | Communication Systems |
Project(s) | No Simula project |
Publication Type | PhD Thesis |
Year of Publication | 2019 |
Degree awarding institution | The University of Oslo |
Degree | PhD |
Publisher | Department of Informatics, University of Oslo |
Proceedings, refereed
Inferring carrier-grade NAT deployment in the wild
In IEEE Conference on Computer Communications (INFOCOM). IEEE, 2018.Status: Published
Inferring carrier-grade NAT deployment in the wild
Afilliation | Communication Systems |
Project(s) | The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering |
Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
Year of Publication | 2018 |
Conference Name | IEEE Conference on Computer Communications (INFOCOM) |
Publisher | IEEE |
Proceedings, refereed
Measuring IPv6 Adoption in Africa
In International Workshop on Internet Measurements Research in Africa - IMRA 2017 in conjunction with Africomm 2017, 2017.Status: Published
Measuring IPv6 Adoption in Africa
Afilliation | Communication Systems |
Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
Year of Publication | 2017 |
Conference Name | International Workshop on Internet Measurements Research in Africa - IMRA 2017 in conjunction with Africomm 2017 |
Date Published | 12/2017 |
Journal Article
On IPv4 transfer markets: Analyzing reported transfers and inferring transfers in the wild
Computer Communications 111 (2017): 105-119.Status: Published
On IPv4 transfer markets: Analyzing reported transfers and inferring transfers in the wild
IPv4 Transfer Markets have recently emerged as a mechanism for prolonging the usability of IPv4 address space. They facilitate the trading of IPv4 address space, which constitutes a radical shift transforming IPv4 addresses from a free resource to a commodity. In this paper, we conduct a comprehensive analysis of all IPv4 transfers that are published by three regional Internet registries. We analyze the overall evolution of transfer markets, whether they lead to a healthy redistribution of IP addresses, and the interplay between transfers and IPv6 adoption. We find that, to a large extent, IPv4 transfers serve their intended purpose by moving IP blocks from those with excess to those in need - transferred address blocks appear to be routed after the transfer, the utilization of transferred blocks is greater after the transfer date and a high percentage of the transferred space comes from legacy space. We have also proposed a methodology for detecting IPv4 transfers in the wild that tracks changes in origins of IP prefixes in the global routing table. This method yields promising results, yet it produces a large number of false positives due to the noisy nature of routing data. We have investigated the cause of these false positives and verified that they can be reduced to a volume analyzable by a human operator.
Afilliation | Communication Systems |
Project(s) | NorNet |
Publication Type | Journal Article |
Year of Publication | 2017 |
Journal | Computer Communications |
Volume | 111 |
Pagination | 105-119 |
Publisher | Elsevier |
DOI | 10.1016/j.comcom.2017.07.012 |
Proceedings, refereed
Characterizing IPv6 control and data plane stability
In IEEE International Conference on Computer Communications (INFOCOM), 2016.Status: Published
Characterizing IPv6 control and data plane stability
Afilliation | Communication Systems |
Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
Year of Publication | 2016 |
Conference Name | IEEE International Conference on Computer Communications (INFOCOM) |
Proceedings, refereed
Leveraging the IPv4/IPv6 Identity Duality by using Multi-Path Transport
In Proceedings of the 18th IEEE Global Internet Symposium (GI). Hong Kong/People's Republic of China, 2015.Status: Published
Leveraging the IPv4/IPv6 Identity Duality by using Multi-Path Transport
With the 20th anniversary of IPv6 nearing quickly, a growing number of Internet service providers (ISPs) now offer their customers both IPv6 and IPv4 connectivity. This makes multi-homing with IPv4 and IPv6 increasingly common even with just a single ISP connection. Furthermore, the growing popularity of multi-path transport, especially Multi-path TCP (MPTCP) that is the extension of the well-known Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), leads to the question of whether this identity duality can be utilized for improving application performance in addition to providing resilience. In this paper, we first investigate the AS-level congruency of IPv4 and IPv6 paths in the Internet. We find that more than 60% of the current IPv4 and IPv6 AS-paths are non-congruent at the AS-level, which motivates us to explore how MPTCP can utilize the IPv4/IPv6 identity duality to improve data transfer performance. Our results show that MPTCP, even with a single dual-stack Internet connection, can significantly improve the end-to-end performance when the underlying paths are non-congruent. The extent of the improvement can reach up to the aggregate of the IPv4 and IPv6 bandwidth.
Afilliation | , Communication Systems, Communication Systems |
Project(s) | NorNet, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications |
Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
Year of Publication | 2015 |
Conference Name | Proceedings of the 18th IEEE Global Internet Symposium (GI) |
Date Published | 05/2015 |
Place Published | Hong Kong/People's Republic of China |
Keywords | Identity Duality, Internet Paths, IPv4, IPv6, Routing |
Public outreach
MPTCP Experiences in the NorNet Testbed
https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-dreibholz-mptcp-nornet-experience-01, 2015.Status: Accepted
MPTCP Experiences in the NorNet Testbed
This document collects some experiences of Multi-Path TCP (MPTCP) evaluations in the NorNet testbed.
Afilliation | , Communication Systems |
Publication Type | Public outreach |
Year of Publication | 2015 |
Place Published | https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-dreibholz-mptcp-nornet-experience-01 |
Talks, invited
On IPv4 and IPv6 Routing Stability
In Workshop on Active Internet Measurements (AIMS), 2015.Status: Published
On IPv4 and IPv6 Routing Stability
Afilliation | Communication Systems |
Project(s) | NorNet |
Publication Type | Talks, invited |
Year of Publication | 2015 |
Location of Talk | Workshop on Active Internet Measurements (AIMS) |
Talks, invited
Leveraging IPv4 and IPv6 Multi-Connectivity
In Proceedings of the 2nd International NorNet Users Workshop (NNUW-2), 2014.Status: Published
Leveraging IPv4 and IPv6 Multi-Connectivity
Afilliation | , Communication Systems |
Publication Type | Talks, invited |
Year of Publication | 2014 |
Location of Talk | Proceedings of the 2nd International NorNet Users Workshop (NNUW-2) |
Keywords | Workshop |
Proceedings, refereed
A First Look at IPv4 Transfer Markets
In CoNEXT 2013. ACM SIGCOMM, 2013.Status: Published
A First Look at IPv4 Transfer Markets
In February 2011 the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) exhausted its free pool of IPv4 addresses, and the regional registries (RIRs) have started to run out of IPv4 addresses as well. As RIRs have started rationing allocations, IPv4 transfer markets have emerged as a new mechanism to acquire IPv4 addresses. Barring a few high-profile exceptions, IPv4 transfers have largely flown under the radar. In this work, we use the lists of transfers published by three RIRs to characterize the transfer market - the types of players involved, the sizes and characteristics of transferred address blocks, and visible effects on the routing table. Next, we take first steps toward detecting address transfers using BGP data from the Routeviews and RIPE repositories from 2004-2013. We identify reasons why legitimate changes in prefix origin could be confused as transfers, and implement a series of 10 filters that remove 86% of candidate transfers. We find the remaining number of inferred transfers is increasing over time. We could confirm few (0.16%) of these transfers using RIR-published transfer lists; while our inference methodology undoubtedly yields false positives, a black market for IPv4 transfers may exist as well.
Afilliation | , Communication Systems |
Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
Year of Publication | 2013 |
Conference Name | CoNEXT 2013 |
Pagination | 7-12 |
Date Published | December |
Publisher | ACM SIGCOMM |
ISBN Number | 978-1-4503-2101-3 |
Keywords | Conference |
Proceedings, refereed
Inferring carrier-grade NAT deployment in the wild
In IEEE Conference on Computer Communications (INFOCOM).Status: Published
Inferring carrier-grade NAT deployment in the wild
Afilliation | Communication Systems |
Project(s) | The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering |
Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
Conference Name | IEEE Conference on Computer Communications (INFOCOM) |
Inferring carrier-grade NAT deployment in the wild
In IEEE Conference on Computer Communications (INFOCOM).Status: Published
Inferring carrier-grade NAT deployment in the wild
Afilliation | Communication Systems |
Project(s) | The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering |
Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
Conference Name | IEEE Conference on Computer Communications (INFOCOM) |