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Press Release: LINX FUNDS UCL PROJECT TO IMPROVE INTERNET MONITORING AND REPORTING |
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The three year project is being jointly funded by LINX and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council via its Dorothy Hodgkins Postgraduate Scholarship Awards scheme.
It will be undertaken by researchers Kumardev Chatterjee and Dr Saleem Bhatti and will lead to development of improved real-time, distributed and secure traffic monitoring tools for Internet exchange points (IXPs) and Internet service providers (ISPs). Better monitoring will identify occurring or potential problems earlier than present systems, allowing network operators to take action to correct or prevent them.
Better monitoring systems could be used to enable systems which help with the early detection of distributed denial-of-services (DDoS) attacks, manage the large scale effects of interaction between inter-domain and intra-domain routing, and improve congestion control and traffic engineering across the Internet as a whole.
The UCL team will initially monitor and measure Internet traffic flows at LINX. Saleem Bhatti said: Only traffic data captured at key peering points will enable generation of an accurate model of the Internet's real-time routing flows. Monitoring traffic at LINX - one of the world's leading IXPs - gives UCL critical access to the real-time data needed for this project.
LINX connects the networks of around 180 ISPs and similar organisations through switches housed in six colocation facilities in London which are linked by dedicated fibre optic cables. Internet traffic at LINX is now over 84 gigabits per second at peak times.
John Souter, chief executive at LINX, said: IXPs must ensure effective and reliable operation of their network infrastructure and they rely on software tools which allow them to monitor network traffic as part of wider network management systems. At present, each IXP uses a different monitoring system, designed for or adapted to its own requirements.
It would be beneficial if IXPs could exchange information and monitor each other's traffic using a common set of tools. A larger user community would enable the tools to be more sophisticated, more reliable and more robust.
Although this is a three year project we hope to get some initial results quite quickly. Benefits will then feed through as we begin to develop the ideas that arise from having the monitoring framework in place.
For example, ISPs which peer at LINX will be able to specify monitoring tools, run at LINX, which will give them an external view of their networks. They will be able to see the operation of their networks in a way which they cannot do when looking from within. This will help them to manage their networks more effectively.
LINX is a mutual not-for-profit organisation, owned by the ISPs and content service delivery providers which have connections there. It will freely share the results of the UCL project with other not-for-profit IXPs throughout the world. It is already talking to other members of Euro-IX, the European association of IXPs, about development of a common monitoring system.
John Souter added: The real benefits of the research will come from IXPs working together and LINX is delighted to again be taking a lead in assisting the Internet community in a major collaborative project.
We are also delighted to again be working with UCL. Strong links between IXPs and leading academics are mutually beneficial.
The UCL project will build on an ongoing collaboration between LINX and UCL to develop ExSERT – the Extensible Secure Event and Report Toolkit – which is a system for creating tools usable by all IXPs to develop data monitoring and reporting which can be exchanged with other IXPs.
Kumardev Chatterjee said: The new project will develop a fully-functional, completely distributed and secure, real-time IXP operational monitoring and reporting system architecture that IXPs can use together to achieve better information sharing and shared network management. This will in turn make Internet traffic management more efficient and robust.
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Notes to editors:
1. LINX (www.linx.net) is a mutual, not-for-profit organisation whose members include almost all the major UK ISPs and content delivery service providers plus many from the USA, mainland Europe, the Far East and Africa. Every member of LINX has an equal vote in the management of the organisation's affairs.
2. More than 90 per cent of the Internet traffic exchanged between ISPs in the UK passes through LINX equipment. Peak traffic flows across LINX equipment now total more than 84 gigabits per second, making LINX one of the largest three IXPs in the world.
3. Connection of Internet networks at an IXP such as LINX is known as 'peering'.
4. The Internet traffic at LINX consists of a wide variety of data including website downloads, business information and e-mails. However, one gigabit is roughly equivalent to 60,000 average email messages - so peak traffic at LINX would now accommodate more than 5 million email messages per second.
5. The UCL Computer Science Department (www.cs.ucl.ac.uk) is a world-class centre of excellence. Its work brings together novel technologies and methods in areas such as networks and communications; vision, imaging and virtual environments; intelligent systems; bioinformatics; and software systems engineering. The department aims to carry the excitement of research into teaching and to inspire the next generation of creators and innovators. It takes an experimental, scientific, approach to the subject, with an emphasis on the practical implementation of technology.
6. LINX and UCL have an ongoing collaboration in the development of ExSERT, the Extensible Secure Event and Report Toolkit. An outline isavailable at http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/S.Bhatti/linx/2005-07-13-exsert-outline.pdf.
7. Saleem N. Bhatti (http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/S.Bhatti/) is a senior lecturer in data communications and networking in the UCL Computer Science Department and is a member of the Networks Research Group and the college-wide Networked Systems Research Group. Since 1991 he has been part of the research staff at UCL, involved with several pan-European collaborative projects. The project partners have included telcos, equipment manufacturers, CATV companies and academic institutions from all over Europe. His work has involved aspects of multi-service networking, tele-working, multicast, network and systems management, network security, IPv6, the consideration of QoS (Quality of Service) adaptability support for Internet applications and adaptive systems, and grid networking and grid computing. He is also involved with industry in various consultancy roles in the area of networking technology and systems. Saleem holds a BEng (Hons) degree in electrical and electronic engineering, an MSc in data communication networks and distributed systems, and a PhD in computer science, all from UCL.
8. Kumardev Chatterjee is studying for a PhD in Computer Science at UCL as a Dorothy Hodgkins Postgraduate Scholar. He has several years of industry experience in a variety of roles and on complex projects in different domains. Since 1999 he has worked at Adobe (Product QA), Go4i (Portal Management, Wireless Portal Development), Sapient (Senior Associate Technology, mostly Internet Enabled Systems), Airtel (Senior Consultant, IT over Telecom), GE (Senior Consultant, E-Learning Systems) and recently as a Project Officer, Software Technology and Distributed Systems, for the European Commission’s Directorate General for Information Society. He has an MSc in data communication networks and distributed systems from UCL as a British Chevening Science scholar and a Bachelors in Information Technology from the University of Delhi, India.
9. Funding of the research project at UCL is through a PhD studentship, 50 per cent of which is coming from LINX and 50 per cent from the Dorothy Hodgkin Postgraduate Award Scheme (DHPA) - see www.rcuk.ac.uk/hodgkin - a UK initiative to bring outstanding students from India, China, Hong Kong, South Africa, Brazil, Russia and the developing world to study for PhDs in top rated UK research facilities. The DHPA is made available through the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC, http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/)
For more information contact:
John Souter
The London Internet Exchange
Telephone: +44 (0)1733 207700
Email: pr@linx.net
Mike Holland or Paul Widdowfield
Smye Holland Associates
Telephone: +44 (0)1733 564906
Email: mikeh@smye-holland.com
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