Hosting Wide-Area Network Testbeds: Policy Considerations Larry Peterson Princeton University

CoBlitz Service Has sustained rates approaching 10Gbps Also used… UniversityChannel (videos of public policy lectures) Fedora Linux distributions CiteSeer papers Polish presidential debates

PlanetLab ~1000 machines spanning 450+ sites and 40 countries Supports distributed virtualization hundreds of experiments, each running in its own slice

PlanetLab (cont) Background –Operational for six years –~1000 nodes / 450+ sites / researchers –4-6TB / 1 million unique IP addresses (each day) Actors –PlanetLab Central (PLC) ä testbed operator / trusted intermediary –Hosting Sites ä universities, corporate labs, national research networks (e.g., I2) –Researchers ä granted a slice of the global testbed –Third Parties ä end-users, content providers, attackers, ISPs

PlanetLab (cont) Measurement Studies –network probes ä traceroute, ping –application probes ä HTTP, DNS, BitTorrent –edge probes ä knowingly & unknowingly Deployment Studies –opt-in strategy ä client, server, neither –Privacy ä log files and measurement data –abusing services ä spam, unauthorized access, illegal content

Policies/Advice Do not police content –DMCA is relevant Prefer opt-out to opt-in –IRB oversight (of human studies) not required Protect privacy of log files –ECPA & SCA are relevant Research is distinctive –CALEA is not relevant Adhere to best practices –avoid random probes (CMA - UK) –prevent service abuse (CFAA)

Three-Way “Agreement” Researchers –follow established best practices –honor opt-out requests –keep log files private ä respond to legal requests to access logs –be responsive to complaints

Agreement (cont) Hosting Sites –place nodes in a DMZ ä do not filter ports or ICMP ping packets –forward complaints and concerns to the testbed operators –do not disconnect nodes as this affects all researchers –worst case: bring nodes into safe mode pending resolution

Agreement (cont) Network Testbed Operators –actively monitor and secure nodes –bring suspicious nodes into safe mode for further investigation –be responsive to complaints –suspend slices that do not adhere to best practices ä suspend users that consistently ignore best practices –engage research community in defining best practices ä educate researchers as to these practices –honor opt-out

Links Paper: PlanetLab: CoBlitz: codeen.cs.princeton.edu/coblitz/

Backup Slides

Acronyms CALEA –Communication Assistance for Law Enforcement Act CFAA –Computer Fraud & Abuse Act CMA –Computer Misuse Act (UK) DMCA –Digital Millennium Copyright Act ECPA –Electronic Communications Protection Act SCA –Stored Communications Act