research-article

Measured impact of crooked traceroute

Authors:

Matthew Luckie,

Amogh Dhamdhere,

David MurrellAuthors Info & Claims

ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review, Volume 41, Issue 1

Pages 14 - 21

https://doi.org/10.1145/1925861.1925864

Published: 22 January 2011 Publication History

Abstract

Data collected using traceroute-based algorithms underpins research into the Internet's router-level topology, though it is possible to infer false links from this data. One source of false inference is the combination of per-flow load-balancing, in which more than one path is active from a given source to destination, and classic traceroute, which varies the UDP destination port number or ICMP checksum of successive probe packets, which can cause per-flow load-balancers to treat successive packets as distinct flows and forward them along different paths. Consequently, successive probe packets can solicit responses from unconnected routers, leading to the inference of false links. This paper examines the inaccuracies induced from such false inferences, both on macroscopic and ISP topology mapping. We collected macroscopic topology data to 365k destinations, with techniques that both do and do not try to capture load balancing phenomena. We then use alias resolution techniques to infer if a measurement artifact of classic traceroute induces a false router-level link. This technique detected that 2.71% and 0.76% of the links in our UDP and ICMP graphs were falsely inferred due to the presence of load-balancing. We conclude that most per-flow load-balancing does not induce false links when macroscopic topology is inferred using classic traceroute. The effect of false links on ISP topology mapping is possibly much worse, because the degrees of a tier-1 ISP's routers derived from classic traceroute were inflated by a median factor of 2.9 as compared to those inferred with Paris traceroute.

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Cited By

Chen SLiao H(2022)An Unsupervised Detection Method for Multiple Abnormal Wi-Fi Access Points in Large-Scale Wireless NetworkApplied Artificial Intelligence10.1080/08839514.2022.207372236:1Online publication date: 18-May-2022
https://doi.org/10.1080/08839514.2022.2073722
Pi YJamin SDanzig PQian F(2020)Latency Imbalance Among Internet Load-Balanced PathsProceedings of the ACM on Measurement and Analysis of Computing Systems10.1145/33921504:2(1-29)Online publication date: 12-Jun-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3392150
Custura ASecchi RFairhurst G(2018)Exploring DSCP modification pathologies in the InternetComputer Communications10.1016/j.comcom.2018.05.016127(86-94)Online publication date: Sep-2018
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comcom.2018.05.016
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Index Terms

Measured impact of crooked traceroute
1. General and reference
  1. Cross-computing tools and techniques
    1. Measurement
    2. Metrics

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cover image ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review

ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review Volume 41, Issue 1

January 2011

132 pages

ISSN:0146-4833

DOI:10.1145/1925861

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Copyright © 2011 Authors.

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 22 January 2011

Published in SIGCOMM-CCR Volume 41, Issue 1

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Cited By

Chen SLiao H(2022)An Unsupervised Detection Method for Multiple Abnormal Wi-Fi Access Points in Large-Scale Wireless NetworkApplied Artificial Intelligence10.1080/08839514.2022.207372236:1Online publication date: 18-May-2022
https://doi.org/10.1080/08839514.2022.2073722
Pi YJamin SDanzig PQian F(2020)Latency Imbalance Among Internet Load-Balanced PathsProceedings of the ACM on Measurement and Analysis of Computing Systems10.1145/33921504:2(1-29)Online publication date: 12-Jun-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3392150
Custura ASecchi RFairhurst G(2018)Exploring DSCP modification pathologies in the InternetComputer Communications10.1016/j.comcom.2018.05.016127(86-94)Online publication date: Sep-2018
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comcom.2018.05.016
Marchetta PMontieri APersico VPescape ACunha IKatz-Bassett E(2016)How and how much traceroute confuses our understanding of network paths2016 IEEE International Symposium on Local and Metropolitan Area Networks (LANMAN)10.1109/LANMAN.2016.7548847(1-7)Online publication date: Jun-2016
https://doi.org/10.1109/LANMAN.2016.7548847
Shaolei Wang Lei Zhang Chaojing Tang (2016)Link inference in the presense of load balancing2016 7th IEEE International Conference on Software Engineering and Service Science (ICSESS)10.1109/ICSESS.2016.7883010(29-32)Online publication date: Aug-2016
https://doi.org/10.1109/ICSESS.2016.7883010
Chandrasekaran BSmaragdakis GBerger ALuckie MNg KHuici FBianchi G(2015)A server-to-server view of the internetProceedings of the 11th ACM Conference on Emerging Networking Experiments and Technologies10.1145/2716281.2836125(1-13)Online publication date: 1-Dec-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2716281.2836125
Holbert BTati SSilvestri SLa Porta TSwami A(2015)Network Topology Inference With Partial InformationIEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management10.1109/TNSM.2015.245103212:3(406-419)Online publication date: 1-Sep-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/TNSM.2015.2451032
Luckie M(2014)Spurious routes in public BGP dataACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review10.1145/2656877.265688044:3(14-21)Online publication date: 28-Jul-2014
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2656877.2656880
Golkar FDreibholz TKvalbein A(2014)Measuring and comparing Internet path stability in IPv4 and IPv62014 International Conference and Workshop on the Network of the Future (NOF)10.1109/NOF.2014.7119767(1-5)Online publication date: Dec-2014
https://doi.org/10.1109/NOF.2014.7119767
Luckie MClaffy K(2014)A Second Look at Detecting Third-Party Addresses in Traceroute Traces with the IP Timestamp OptionProceedings of the 15th International Conference on Passive and Active Measurement - Volume 836210.1007/978-3-319-04918-2_5(46-55)Online publication date: 10-Mar-2014
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