Closing the Loop: Feedback at Your Fingertips

A Mobile Network Neutrality Monitoring System

This research is supported by the National Science Foundation.

Motivation and Approach

The global network we call the Internet today was started a few decades ago following a very simple model. The entities involved in the beginning had very simple (stated) goals and interaction between them was consequently simple. Technological advances in the recent years have brought exciting new capabilities for Internet users - they can access the Internet from almost anywhere using mobile devices. The entities involved in the functioning of the Internet are however much more complex in current times and their goals are increasingly fragmented and often times hidden.

In this project we elaborate on two such entities: (i) mobile network providers, and (ii) application or service providers. Considering recent signs of tussle and debate between the two entities we argue that given the obviously more complex nature of the Internet of today, feedback from the end-user is useful and might help decision makers, policy makers settle the network neutrality debate. Our efforts are aimed at building an application aimed at several popular mobile platforms that captures feedback about the availability and performance (both measured and judged by the user) of Internet services and applications.

The primary goal of this project is not to take sides in the emerging net neutrality debate, but rather to design a system capable of making the Internet more transparent. Our system runs on the Measurement Lab, an open platform founded by Google Inc., the New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute, and the Planet Lab Consortium.

People

• Faculty:
Aleksandar Kuzmanovic


• Graduate Students:
Ionut Trestian
Rahul Potharaju