RFC 1273 (rfc1273) - Page 1 of 8


Measurement Study of Changes in Service-Level Reachability in the Global TCP/IP Internet: Goals, Experimental Design, Implementation, and Policy Considerations



Alternative Format: Original Text Document



Network Working Group                                        M. Schwartz
Request for Comments: 1273                        University of Colorado
                                                           November 1991


                   A Measurement Study of Changes in
                Service-Level Reachability in the Global
              TCP/IP Internet: Goals, Experimental Design,
               Implementation, and Policy Considerations

Status of this Memo

   This memo provides information for the Internet community.  It does
   not specify an Internet standard.  Distribution of this memo is
   unlimited.

Abstract

   In this report we discuss plans to carry out a longitudinal
   measurement study of changes in service-level reachability in the
   global TCP/IP Internet.  We overview our experimental design,
   considerations of network and remote site load, mechanisms used to
   control the measurement collection process, and network appropriate
   use and privacy issues, including our efforts to inform sites
   measured by this study.  A list of references and information on how
   to contact the Principal Investigator are included.

Introduction

   The global TCP/IP Internet interconnects millions of individuals at
   thousands of institutions worldwide, offering the potential for
   significant collaboration through network services and electronic
   information exchange.  At the same time, such powerful connectivity
   offers many avenues for security violations, as evidenced by a number
   of well publicized events over the past few years.  In response, many
   sites have imposed mechanisms to limit their exposure to security
   intrusions, ranging from disabling certain inter-site services, to
   using external gateways that only allow electronic mail delivery, to
   gateways that limit remote interactions via access control lists, to
   disconnection from the Internet.  While these measures are preferable
   to the damage that could occur from security violations, taken to an
   extreme they could eventually reduce the Internet to little more than
   a means of supporting certain pre-approved point-to-point data
   transfers.  Such diminished functionality could hinder or prevent the
   deployment of important new types of network services, impeding both
   research and commercial advancement.

   To understand the evolution of this situation, we have designed a



Schwartz