From: Scott Schremmer (scotths@cs.washington.edu)
Date: Wed Nov 03 2004 - 08:15:08 PST
This paper discusses the causes behind path inflation. It has
been found that the path chosen through the Internet between 2 points is
often no the most optimal path. It has been difficult to determine why
this is the case as the routing policies, both internal and the
connections to other isps are often considered proprietary information by
each ISP. Thus, it has been difficult to determine if these delays are
due to badly designed networks, poor protocol choices, or due to the ISP's
policies perhaps to maximize their profit and market share.
This paper attempts to answer that question by gathering empirical data and
using advanced techniques to infer the topology of portions of the
Internet. From this information it was hoped that information on the
routing policies of the ISP's studied could be inferred as well.
Interestingly the finding indicate that the causes of the sub-optimal path
choices are usually due to topology issues rather than business related
reasons. Possibly if more information was exchanged between the ISP's
more optimal routing decisions could be made with little impact on the
profitability of the ISP's.
One draw back of the paper is that the data was collected over a fairly
small portion of the Internet and in a fairly short amount of time.
Thus, more data could be useful in determine the authenticity of these
results.
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