Internet topology measurements for identifying and understanding policy issues

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to argue that insight into internet topology at various levels of aggregation is necessary for identifying and understanding policy issues in the areas of fair competition, reliability and performance in the internet.Design/methodology/approachUsing three areas of social concern in relation to the global information infrastructure as a context, the paper provides some theoretical examples, supported by case examples, which show the importance of gaining insight into internet topology.FindingsThe paper finds that proper detectors for internet policy are lacking and insight into the topology of the internet is needed. The only feasible way of obtaining this insight is by topology measurements, but still some fundamental pathologies in the available measurement tools and techniques need to be overcome. All internet topologies published to date suffer from these limitations and their use for identifying internet policy is limited.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper provides a general overview of importance and limitations. Future research should be focused on increasing the usability of internet topology by solving fundamental issues in the area of internet topology measurement.Practical implicationsThe availability of high‐quality internet topology maps at various levels of aggregation would dramatically improve one's ability to identify and understand certain policy issues in the internet.Originality/valueIn policy analysis it is often ignored that certain policy issues have their base in the internet infrastructure and knowledge of this infrastructure is limited. In internet topology research, focus is mainly on technical and operational issues and limited attention is given to the usability of inferred topology for identifying policy issues. Until now, an approach that addresses both fundamental topology research and internet policy issues in concordance has been lacking.