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An analysis of interdomain availability and causes of failures based on active measurements

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Abstract

With the objective to better understand how the global Internet should achieve an availability in the order of “five nines”, i.e. be available 0.99999 of the time, active measurements were performed between Norway and China through the Global Research Network. End-to-end downtime statistics were collected during two 3-month periods, mid November 2009 till mid February 2010 and July 2010 till September 2010. Probe packets were sent every 10 ms between the two measurement systems supplemented by traceroute measurements every two minutes. The collected data (TTL, timestamps, sequence numbers and traceroute output) enabled identification and characterization of IP-level paths between the end-points. Causes of observed network failures were identified and insight is gained into processes preceding and following communication downtimes. We distinguish inter- and intradomain failures and, when possible, identify an exact link or an Autonomous System where a certain event has happened. The study shows that the end-to-end path availability is mainly affected by interdomain failures and long BGP convergence time as well as series of events not straight forwardly explained by the anticipated (re)routing behavior.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Network and Systems Development, Sibcom, Oslo, Norway

    Eugene S. Myakotnykh

  2. IoU department, UNINETT, 7465, Trondheim, Norway

    Otto J. Wittner, Jon Kåre Hellan, Trond Skjesol & Arne Øslebø

  3. Centre for Quantifiable Quality of Service in Communication Systems, Centre of Excellence, NTNU, O.S. Bragstads plass 2E, 7491, Trondheim, Norway

    Bjarne E. Helvik & Atef Abdelkefi

  4. CTO IoU department, UNINETT, 7465, Trondheim, Norway

    Olav Kvittem

Authors
  1. Eugene S. Myakotnykh
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  2. Otto J. Wittner
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  3. Bjarne E. Helvik
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  4. Atef Abdelkefi
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  5. Jon Kåre Hellan
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  6. Olav Kvittem
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  7. Trond Skjesol
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  8. Arne Øslebø
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Otto J. Wittner.

Additional information

E.S. Myakotnykh, B.E. Helvik, and A. Abdelkefi: “Centre for Quantifiable Quality of Service in Communication Systems, Centre of Excellence” appointed by The Research Council of Norway, funded by the Research Council, NTNU and UNINETT. http://www.q2s.ntnu.no.

O.J. Wittner, J.K. Hellan, O. Kvittem, T. Skjesol, A. Øslebø: UNINETT is a group of companies which supplies network services for universities, university colleges and research institutions in Norway and handles other national ICT tasks. The Group is owned by the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research. http://www.uninett.no.

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Myakotnykh, E.S., Wittner, O.J., Helvik, B.E. et al. An analysis of interdomain availability and causes of failures based on active measurements. Telecommun Syst 52, 847–860 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11235-011-9586-1

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