IMR: MT: A Community Platform for Controlled Experiments on Internet Access Networks

IMR：MT：互联网接入网络受控实验的社区平台

• 批准号: 2223610
• 负责人: Nicholas Feamster
• 金额: $ 60万
• 依托单位: University of Chicago
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-10-01 至 2024-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2223610&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: IMR; MT; Community; Platform; Controlled

Internet measurement research has long operated on convenience samples---measurements that are derived from convenience, based on the sets of vantage points that can be obtained through access to a particular testbed, the deployment of an application, or the opportunistic recruitment of participants. Throughout the early decades of the Internet, such an approach was sensible and could often provide important insights about the design of specific protocols or applications, or even some aspect of the Internet writ large. Over the past several years, however, the research community---and society more broadly---has begun to ask a broader set of questions, moving beyond those of technical protocol or application design, to questions of social or policy relevance. The current measurement tools and platforms are ill-equipped to address the concomitant research questions that intersect with broader societal questions. This project aims to develop a platform to change that, delivering the first-ever network measurement platform that can facilitate studying a broader set of research questions than are possible with existing platforms. Perhaps one of the most striking examples of such a set of questions relates to the Internet's digital divide. The challenge is widely acknowledged, by researchers, advocacy organizations, and policymakers alike, as a significant challenge, and providing all Americans with affordable Internet connectivity is a national priority as well. This project is developing a measurement platform that will enable this new family of measurements. Building on early successes in a pilot deployment in Chicago, the project aims to design, develop, and deploy a first-of-its-kind measurement infrastructure that is specifically designed to enable new classes of research questions concerning digital infrastructure across our nation's population (and ultimately, the global population). The infrastructure is open-source, and incrementally deployable and expandable, allowing the project and infrastructure to scale from pilot to national or global deployments as lessons from early deployments are applied to a larger testbed. The potential outcomes of this platform are profound and wide-ranging, catalyzing an entirely new class of Internet measurements and research studies---shifting the computer networking and Internet measurement research areas from questions that focus only on convenience samples (thus limiting our research questions to those of technology and protocols) to samples that concern infrastructure and population (thus allowing networking researchers to ask a broader set of technical questions with importance across disciplines, from economics to policy to social science).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

互联网测量研究长期以来一直以便利性样本进行操作 - 基于便利性的测量，基于可以通过访问特定的测试台，应用程序的部署或参与者的机会主义招募来获得的有利位点的集合。在互联网的几十年中，这种方法是明智的，并且通常可以提供有关特定协议或应用程序设计的重要见解，甚至可以提供互联网写作的某些方面。 然而，在过去的几年中，研究界和社会更广泛地提出了更广泛的问题，超越了技术协议或应用程序设计的问题，并提出了社会或政策相关性的问题。当前的测量工具和平台缺乏能力，无法解决与更广泛的社会问题相交的伴随研究问题。 该项目旨在开发一个平台来更改该平台，提供有史以来第一个网络测量平台，该平台可以促进研究一组更广泛的研究问题，而不是现有平台。也许这组问题最引人注目的例子之一与互联网的数字鸿沟有关。 研究人员，倡导组织和政策制定者都广泛承认挑战是一个重大挑战，并为所有美国人提供负担得起的互联网连通性也是国家的优先事项。 该项目正在开发一个测量平台，该平台将实现这一新的测量家族。该项目旨在在芝加哥的试点部署中取得早期成功，旨在设计，开发和部署首要的测量基础架构，该基础设施专门设计，旨在启动有关在我们国家人口中有关数字基础设施的新类别的研究问题（最终，全球人口）。基础架构是开源的，并且可以逐步部署和扩展，因此由于将早期部署的经验教训应用于较大的测试台，因此项目和基础架构可以从飞行员到国家或全球部署进行扩展。 该平台的潜在结果是深刻而广泛的，催化了全新的互联网测量和研究研究 - - 将计算机网络和互联网测量研究领域转移到仅关注便利样本的问题（从而限制了我们的研究问题）对于技术和协议的人）到涉及基础设施和人口的样本（从经济学到政策再到社会科学），网络研究人员可以提出更广泛的技术问题。认为值得通过基金会的智力优点和更广泛影响的评论标准来评估值得支持。