Toronto
Networking Seminar 2006
Fingerprinting
Internet Paths using Packet Pair Dispersion
Christos
Papadopoulos
University of Southern California
Date:
March 3, 3pm
Location: BA1210 (Bahen Center)
Abstract
Path
fingerprinting is an essential component of applications that
distinguish among different network paths, including path selection in
overlay networks, multi-path routing, monitoring and diagnosis of
network problems, and developing a deeper understanding of network
behavior. We propose a new approach to Internet path
fingerprinting based on the distribution of end-to-end packet-pair
measurements. This approach allows detection of busy link
sharing between two paths, even when those segments have low
utilization and are not the paths' bottlenecks. While our
fingerprints do not assure physically disjoint paths (since
that requires information external to the network), they reflect the
traffic and link characteristics of intermediate links. This
methodology is therefore tolerant of opaque clouds such as VPNs, VLANs,
or MPLS (unlike traceroute). Using analysis and simulation we
explore the network factors that affect the fingerprints, and we
introduce a simple method to compare them. Through
measurements of up to a year over 15 Internet paths, we show that our
fingerprints are both distinct and persistent over periods of several
months, making their collection and use for path selection
feasible.
Bio:
Christos
Papadopoulos is currently an assistant professor at the University of
Southern California. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science in 1999
from Washington University in St. Louis, MO. His interests include
network security, router services, multimedia protocols and reliable
multicast. Dr. Papadopoulos is a member of IMSC, where he conducts
research in supporting immersive applications and a member of ISI,
where he works on network security related projects. In 2002,
he received an NSF CAREER award to explore router services as a
component of the next generation Internet architecture.
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