1. The PingER Project: Measuring the Digital Divide
Presented by Les Cottrell, SLAC
At the SIS Show Palexpo/Geneva December 2003
PingER
PingER

2. History of the PingER Project
Early 1990’s: SLAC begins pinging nodes around the world to evaluate the quality of Internet connectivity between SLAC and other HEP Institutions.
Around 1996: The PingER project was funded making it the first Internet end-to-end monitoring tool available to the HEP community.
Today: Believed to be the most extensive Internet end-to-end performance monitoring tool in the world
PingER

3. PingER Today
Today, the PingER Project includes 35 Monitoring-hosts in 12 countries. They are monitoring Remote-hosts in 80 countries.
THESE COUNTRIES COVER 75% OF THE WORLD POPULATION AND 99% OF THE INTERNET CONNECTED POPULATION!!!
Spreadsheet: \\zwinsan2\c\cottrell\iepm\ejds-mapland.xls
PingER

4. Methodology Internet Remote Host Monitoring (typically host a server)
>ping remhost
Internet
Remote
Host
(typically
a server)
Monitoring
host
11 ping request packets each 30 mins
Ping response packets
Measure Round Trip Time & Loss, deduce throughput

5. PingER Architecture There are three types of hosts Remote-hosts:
hosts being monitored
Archive
Monitoring
Monitoring-hosts:
Make ping measurements to remote hosts
REMOTE
Archive/Analysis-
hosts: gather data from Monitoring-sites, analyze & make reports
PingER

6. Results: Worldwide performance
Performance is improving
Developed world improving factor of 10 in 4-5 years
S.E. Europe, C.Asia Russia, catching up
India & Africa worse off & falling behind
Developing world 3-10 years behind
Spreadsheet: \\zwinsan2\c\cottrell\iepm\esnet-to-all-lomgterm.xls
Many institutes in developing world have less performance than a household in N. America or Europe!!

7. Current State – Aug ‘03 (throughput Mbps)
Monitoring Country
Remote regions
Worksheet: \\zwinsan2\c\cottrell\iepm\table-thru-aug03.xls
Within region performance better
E.g. Ca|EDU|GOV-NA, Hu-SE Eu, Eu-Eu, Jp-E Asia, Au-Au, Ru-Ru|Baltics
Africa, Caucasus, Central & S. Asia all bad
Acceptable > 500kbits/s, < 1000kbits/s
Bad < 200kbits/s < DSL
Poor > 200 < 500kbits/s
Good > 1000kbits/s

8. PingER vs. ITU Digital Access Index (DAI)
Digital Access Index includes:
availability of infrastructure,
affordability of access,
education level,
quality of ICT services
& Internet usage.
The DAI combines eight variables, covering five areas, to provide an overall country score. The areas are availability of infrastructure, affordability of access, educational level, quality of ICT services, and Internet usage. The results of the Index point to potential stumbling blocks in ICT adoption and can help countries identify their relative strengths and weaknesses.
Spreadsheet:\\zwinsan1\groups\scs\networking\netdev\ictp\dai.xls
Good positive correlation between
Throughput and DAI
Top DAI Countries

9. Typical uses Troubleshooting Setting expectations
Discerning if a reported problem is network related
Identify the time a problem started
Provide quantitative analysis for Network specialists
Identifying step functions, periodic network behavior, and recognize problems affecting multiple sites.
Setting expectations
Identifying need to upgrade
Providing quantitative information to Policy makers & Funding agencies
Seeing the effects of upgrades
PingER

10. In Summary
PingER provides ongoing support for monitoring and maintaining the quality of Internet connectivity for the world wide scientific community.
Information is available publicly on the web
PingER also quantifies the extent of the “Digital Divide” and provides information to policy makers and funding agencies.
PingER