Crisis, Ethics, Reliability & a measurement.network: Reflections on Active Network Measurements in Academia

Tobias Fiebig

Abstract: Network measurements are a necessary component of assessing real-world protocol use to inform the development of new and improvement of old protocols and standards. However, especially active measurements, i.e., measurements in which probes are sent to remote devices to illicit a response, face ethical challenges, are difficult to execute reliably, and may cause unintended harm. In this paper, we reflect on the connection between the Internet's growing complexity, the practicalities of academic research, and the likelyhood of reliability issues and unintended harm occurring in active measurements. We argue that communal infrastructure providing measurement services to the academic community could be a path forward to improve reliability and accessibility, while reducing the potential for unintended harm, and enabling PhD students to more easily draw from the experience of industry professionals.