Transcript Investigating Internet Performance

Investigating Internet
Performance
USF 2003 RET Program
Tahvia Shaw
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WHO AM I?
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Topics
Introduction and Background
 Project Goals
 Internet Performance
 Internet Growth
 Measuring Internet Performance
 Taking it back to the classroom
 StudyWorks!®
 Summary
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Introduction and Background
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Internet performance is a hot issue in Computer
Science. Why???
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There are many factors that are being measured
and investigated to determine the effectiveness of
the Internet System.
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We can perform simple experiments in the middle
school classroom.
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Project Goals
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To have middle school students study real
problems in the area of Computer Science.
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Spark an interest in mathematics and science.
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Learn basic Computer Science and understand the
issues that are being researched.
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Develop basic Computer Science experiments for
middle school students.

Use a mathematics tool to analyze these
experiments.
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Internet Performance
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Factors of Internet performance include but are not
limited to:
– Geographic location
– Connectivity
– Network infrastructure and speed
Internet performance is directly affected by the rate
in which the Internet has grown. The more hosts on
the Internet, the more traffic and congestion.
FOR MORE INFO...
Network wizards, Nielsen Net ratings, www.mids.org,
www.internettrafficreport.com
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Internet Growth
Source:
Internet Software consortium (www.isc.org)
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Transmitting information
Host
Server
Source and
Destination
address
Host
Client
Ethernet
(cable, link)
Packets
(server to user)
The client requests information from the server and the
server sends the information back to the client in the form
of packets. Packets can be lost or delayed.
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Measuring Internet Performance
The PING program sends a small packet of information
to a specified computer, which then sends a reply back to
your computer.
Gives the RTT
in milliseconds
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Measuring Internet Performance Cont.
The Tracert (Trace Route) program is a route-tracing tool that is used to
determine the path a packets takes to reach a destination.
USF
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Yahoo
Measuring Internet Performance Cont.
We will use PING and Tracert to determine:
– Latency
– Packet loss
– Reachability
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Latency
Latency aka Delay – The round trip delay time between the
time the host sends a packet to the destination and the
timethe host receives a response packet.
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Packet loss
Packet loss – A measure of measurement packets sent
to a destination that do not produce corresponding
return packets; those missing packets are lost packets.
Packet loss can measure the effectiveness of a
particular website on the Internet. Some of the factors
that effect the packet loss are:
– Size of packet ( in bytes)
– Time of day
– Internet congestion
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Packet loss cont.
FOR MORE INFO...
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www.mids.org
Reachability
Reachability – If the host responds to at least one of the
measurement packets.
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Taking it to the classroom
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We can isolate those three measures of internet
performance and create activities and
experiments that middle school students will
understand.
We can use internet delay as our factor and
investigate internet performance by using tools
such as PING and Trace routes to measure
latency, packet loss and reachability and draw
conclusions on how they effect the internet.
FOR MORE INFO...
Lessons will be available soon on USF’s website as well as TCS’s
website. www.tcstornadoes.com
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Taking it to the classroom
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Students will investigate Internet performance by
testing causes of delay.
– Compare geographic distance to PING RTT. We will
PING cities around the world. (see lesson plan for IP
addresses)
– Compare packet size to PING RTT.
– Students will use Tracert to troubleshoot when packets
are lost to determine where a packet stopped.
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Taking it to the classroom
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Taking it to the classroom
cont.
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Students will be introduced to current ongoing
research on computer science issues that effects
them personally.
Students will learn how information is
transported on the Internet and how effective or
reliable the Internet is in responding and
delivering the information.
Students will learn how to collect raw data, plot
graphs and analyze the data.
StudyWorks®
StudyWorks is a math resource tool based off
MathCAD. Students will use this program to create
graphs and analyze data.
Teachers can also create worksheets and problems
for students to solve in StudyWorks.
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StudyWorks® Example
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Conclusion
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Interesting topic for students and myself.
 Many mathematic concepts from graphing to percents.
 Basic computer science skills from using the command
screen to performing PINGS.
 Understanding how information travels on the internet.
 Understanding efficiency.
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Resources
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www.mids.org
http://libra.unitbv.ro/admini/tcpip_tools.htm
www.gigabytex.com
www.cyberatlas.internet.com
www.isc.org/ds
www.mit.edu/people/mkgray.net
http://navigators.com/stats.html
Network Wizards
The Center for Next Generation Internet
Acknowledgements
Thank you Dr. Kenneth Christensen for
the opportunity to participate in this
program.
I would also like to thank Dr. Carlos Smith
and the USF sponsored RET Program for
allowing me to join their group.
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