The internet AS-level topology

Abstract

We calculate an extensive set of characteristics for Internet AS topologies extracted from the three data sources most frequently used by the research community: traceroutes, BGP, and WHOIS. We discover that traceroute and BGP topologies are similar to one another but differ substantially from the WHOIS topology. Among the widely considered metrics, we find that the joint degree distribution appears to fundamentally characterize Internet AS topologies as well as narrowly define values for other important metrics. We discuss the interplay between the specifics of the three data collection mechanisms and the resulting topology views. In particular, we show how the data collection peculiarities explain differences in the resulting joint degree distributions of the respective topologies. Finally, we release to the community the input topology datasets, along with the scripts and output of our calculations. This supplement should enable researchers to validate their models against real data and to make more informed selection of topology data sources for their specific needs.

Studying the Effects of Internet Exchange Points on Internet Topology

“…This led to the general technique of constructing AS or router-level graphs of the Internet topology using both traceroute and BGP data. The authors in [10,19,20] analyzed these graphs based on various graph theoretical metrics. The focus has mostly been on designing measurements to maximize the number of links uncovered and solve the incompleteness problem [5,21].…”

“…We look at topology metrics considered by Mahadevan et al [10], as they appear to fundamentally characterize Internet AS topologies and have been widely used. As this study is primarily meant for comparison purposes, we decided to obtain a snapshot of Internet topology data from the data sources for a period of 31 days in October 2009.…”

“…Scamper probes are currently sent to a random destination prefix from a set of 7.4 million prefixes. As specified in [10] private ASes generate indirect links which we filter out during creation of the AS-level graphs and are then combined to form the final CAIDA graph.…”

“…The constant evolution of the internet topology is undergoing a sea change with the advent of increased peering (leading to a widely inferred 'flattening' of the internet [3,9] and we carry out a graph based study into the macroscopic properties of these IXP peering links with respect to the rest of the visible Internet. We choose a set of metrics discussed in [10] to study and analyze the topological properties of the Internet from various data sources in addition to the extra peering links obtained at the Preprint submitted to Computer Communications December 2, 2012 IXPs. Using numerous available data sources enables us to create a representative 'graph' of the AS-level Internet which we then analyze.…”

Fingerprint for Network Topologies

“…Fig. 3 shows two fingerprints for Internet networks based on different data sources [22]. The fingerprint for the traceroute Internet (line 6) is positioned to the left of that for the BGP Internet (line 7).…”