Once the Internet can measure itself

In communications, the obstacle to high bandwidth and reliable transmission is usually the interconnections, not the links. Nowhere is this more evident than on the Internet, where broadband connections to homes, offices and now mobile smart phones are a frequent source of frustration, and the interconnections between the roughly 50 000 subnetworks (autonomous systems or ASes) from which it is formed, even more so. The structure of the AS graph that is formed by these interconnections is unspecified, undocumented and only guessed-at through measurement, but it shows surprising efficiencies. Under recent pressures for network neutrality and openness or ‘transparency’, operators, several classes of users and regulatory bodies have a good chance of realizing these efficiencies, but they need improved measurement technology to manage this under continued growth. A long-standing vision, an Internet that measures itself, in which every intelligent port takes a part in monitoring, can make this possible and may now be within reach.