EAGER: Collaborative Research: Exploring Internet Balkanization Through the Lens of Regional Discrimination

EAGER：合作研究：通过区域歧视的视角探索互联网巴尔干化

• 批准号: 1651784
• 负责人: Phillipa Gill
• 金额: $ 7.5万
• 依托单位: University of Massachusetts Amherst
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-10-01 至 2019-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1651784&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: EAGER; Collaborative; Research; Exploring; Internet

One of the Internet's greatest strengths is the degree to which it facilitates access to any of its resources from users anywhere in the world. Various forces, however, have arisen that restrict particular users from accessing particular destinations, resulting in a "balkanization" of the network. The principal investigators (PIs) explore methodologies for understanding such balkanization, an effort they will undertake in the context of examining "regional discrimination," i.e., the degree to which certain web services deny or degrade access to users from particular geographic regions. The project seeks to develop techniques that can (1) illuminate the blocking practices of websites at scale, (2) characterize the implications of such balkanization for both users and websites, and (3) identify alternative approaches that can reduce the adverse effects of blocking. Accurately distinguishing between the presence of network discrimination/control versus benign reasons for observing differences in website responses poses a challenging technical problem. First, measurement results can differ based on the properties of the vantage points used. Second, websites may block automated measurement even though regular users can access the websites. These errors include blocking due to unusual web access behavior, e.g., uncommon user agents or excessive web requests per minute. Third, repeated automated measurement from an affected region can potentially induce new blocking. Finally, discrimination may manifest at high semantic levels (e.g., the inability to finalize a purchase) not readily discernible from network-level analysis. In addition, accurate measurement alone does not suffice for understanding the significance of differences in website responses. Websites can differ in regions based on language and copyright regulations, for example. Discriminatory blocking can also occur because websites lack sufficiently fine-grained controls to govern blocking. For example, using the security protection provided by content delivery networks (CDNs) and hosting services can result in inadvertent discrimination. The PIs will undertake the development of scientifically rigorous measurement and analysis methodologies for detecting and understanding differential treatment of Internet users, using the domain of regional discrimination to focus the work. Combining measurements across network layers they will characterize the methods used for such blocking and investigate potential reasons and implications for both users and websites. The PIs will also explore alternative solutions to reduce the damaging effects of regional blocking while still protecting the services from abuse. The Internet has a huge and pervasive impact on the lives of people all over the world. The prevalence of moving away from a global and singular Internet to a multiplicity of regional or national internets, shaped by commerce, the state, and region-specific network security concerns, has seen little methodical exploration. With this work the PIs aim to develop approaches for systematically illuminating the presence of network differences and blocking arising from such balkanization, allowing characterization of its prevalence, and by providing transparency strengthen the overall understanding of how the Internet works in practice.

互联网的最大优势之一是它促进世界上任何地方用户访问其任何资源的程度。但是，各种力量都限制了特定用户访问特定目的地，从而导致网络的“巴尔干化”。首席研究人员（PIS）探讨了理解这种巴尔干化的方法，他们将在检查“区域歧视”的背景下进行的努力，即某些Web服务拒绝或退化从特定地理区域中访问用户的程度。该项目旨在开发可以（1）以大规模阐明网站的阻塞实践的技术，（2）表征这种巴尔干对用户和网站的影响，以及（3）确定可以减少阻塞不良影响的替代方法。准确地区分网络歧视/控制的存在与观察网站响应差异的良性原因会带来一个具有挑战性的技术问题。首先，测量结果可能会根据所使用的优势点的属性而有所不同。其次，即使常规用户可以访问网站，网站也可能会阻止自动测量。这些错误包括由于异常的Web访问行为而阻止，例如，罕见的用户代理或每分钟过多的Web请求。第三，来自受影响区域的重复自动测量可能会引起新的阻塞。最后，歧视可能在高语义级别（例如，无法最终确定购买）中表现出来，从网络级别的分析中不容易辨别。此外，仅准确的测量不足以理解网站响应差异的重要性。例如，基于语言和版权法规的区域可能会有所不同。歧视性阻止也可能发生，因为网站缺乏足够细粒度的控制无法控制阻塞。例如，使用内容交付网络（CDN）提供的安全保护和托管服务可能会导致无意歧视。 PI将利用区域歧视的领域来开发科学严格的测量和分析方法，用于检测和理解互联网使用者的差异处理。结合跨网络层的测量结果，他们将以这种阻止的方法来表征用于阻止的方法，并研究对用户和网站的潜在原因和影响。 PI还将探索替代解决方案，以减少区域阻塞的破坏性影响，同时仍保护服务免受滥用的侵害。互联网对世界各地人民的生活产生了巨大而普遍的影响。从商业，州和特定于地区的网络安全问题塑造的各个地区或国家互联网上，从全球和奇异的互联网转移到多种区域或国家互联网的普遍性几乎没有进行有条理的探索。通过这项工作，PI旨在开发系统地阐明网络差异的存在并阻止这种巴尔干化，允许其患病率的表征，并通过提供透明度来增强对互联网在实践中的整体了解，从而阻止其存在。

项目成果

Characterizing the Deployment and Performance of Multi-CDNs

• DOI: 10.1145/3278532.3278548
• 发表时间: 2018-10
• 期刊: Proceedings of the Internet Measurement Conference 2018
• 作者: Rachee Singh;Arun Dunna;Phillipa Gill

A large-scale analysis of deployed traffic differentiation practices

• DOI: 10.1145/3341302.3342092
• 发表时间: 2019-08
• 期刊: Proceedings of the ACM Special Interest Group on Data Communication
• 作者: Fangfan Li;Arian Akhavan Niaki;D. Choffnes;Phillipa Gill;A. Mislove