Measurement Lab Launches New Global Data Visualization Tools
The Measurement Lab (M-Lab) global measurement platform contains the largest collection of open internet performance data on the planet. Hundreds of thousands of people (and rising everyday!) test their internet connections on M-Lab and provide that data to the public domain for research, analysis and advocacy. As a consortium of research, industry, and public-interest partners, M-Lab is dedicated to providing an ecosystem for the open, verifiable measurement of global network performance. With an extensive library of data dating back to 2009, M-Lab has over 5 petabytes of information about quality of experience on the internet contributed by people like you.
Showing Missing Data in Line Charts
The M-Lab team has been working with Bocoup’s Data Visualization team to overhaul our visualizations and give all of you better support in exploring all of the Measurement Lab data. Look for more about that soon – and reach out via support@measurementlab.net if you are interested in helping with testing and user feedback!
M-Lab has lots of data, but depending on how you slice the data, you might end up with too small of a sample size on a given day in a given location. As part of designing the Observatory visualization, we came up with the idea of using dotted lines to show that we didn’t have a large enough sample size to assert the data value, but that leaving out the data would be incorrect as well. The Bocoup Team took that further and developed a new d3 plugin, d3-line-chunked, which allows you to easily visualize gaps in your data and has good animation support.
New Opportunities for Test Deployment and Continued Analysis of Interconnection Performance
In late April, Internet2, with contributions from M-Lab developers, released an updated version of the Network Diagnostic Tool (NDT), M-Lab’s most widely deployed performance measurement test. In addition to improved stability, the updated version of NDT makes it possible to measure network performance from a web browser without the need for browser plugins. This change removes a layer of complexity and hassle for developers and users. Anyone interested in Internet measurement can now create their own NDT client targeted for specific user populations, regions, and research objectives, using only HTML and Javascript.
New Features for M-Lab Internet Observatory
We launched the M-Lab Internet Observatory last week to provide a window into ISP performance, letting people see how ISPs in the US are doing compared to each other, and to view the way in which the connections between ISPs impact performance. We will be releasing additional features and views as we go, so keep an eye on the Observatory and the blog for updates about the features as we roll them out. This week, by popular demand, we’ve added some features that enable better interaction with and sharing of interesting views of M-Lab data:
Explore M-Lab data using the new RIPEstat widgets
Are you the kind of person who wonders…
- What’s the bandwidth distribution among Internet users within a specific country or network?
- How are active users of a specific network geographically spread?
- How are active users spread within a specific IP address block?