Public review for the internet AS-level topology: three data sources and one definitive metric

ABSTRACT

The paper provides an overview of the current available data sets for AS level topology and examines the usefulness and intuition of many and most widely used metrics used for graph analysis, and highlight some less known metrics. The paper makes two practical contributions.First, the paper highlights an important issue: all source of AS information are not the same. The paper utilizes three sources of information BGP tables, traceroute-based and archived information (WHOIS/IRR). The observed topo-logical properties are fairly different. A potential explanation could be that none of the sources captures the whole AS graph. Thus, the measurement community has more work to do to obtain a complete topology.Second, the paper critically analyzes the importance of the different topology metrics. The last six years have seen a proliferation of new metrics that are used in a selective fashion from researchers. This is one of the first thorough studies of most known metrics and on top of that many metrics that are used in related fields that also study networks (e.g. physics).In conclusion, this paper could become a reference point for making the analysis of the AS topology more systematic both in terms of making researchers: (a) aware of the differences among the datasets, and (b) careful in selecting metrics.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.2 COMPUTER-COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
      C.2.1 Network Architecture and Design
          Subjects: Network topology

Additional Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.2 COMPUTER-COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
      C.2.3 Network Operations
          Subjects: Network monitoring
  C.4 PERFORMANCE OF SYSTEMS

General Terms:
Measurement, Performance, Theory