Bridging the digital divide between research and home networks

Abstract

Computer networking testbeds have made it easier for researchers to conduct realistic evaluations of new network protocols or services. However, it is challenging for users to configure testbeds or other experimental networks so that they are representative of typical home broadband links. To address this issue, we have developed a tool with which experimenters can configure links whose characteristics are drawn from a dataset of over 8,000 profiles of home Internet links in the United States, including fiber, cable, DSL, and satellite Internet connections from a range of speed and cost tiers. This paper describes our tool, and explains how it may be used with a variety of experimental platforms. We hope to make it easier for researchers to mimic networks that are representative of a variety of home users, so as to potentially increase the relevance of their experiments to this population.