1. i-Path : Network Transparency Project
14th JSPS/NRF Core University Program Seminar on Next Generation Internet
i-Path : Network Transparency Project
Shigeki Goto*
Akihiro Shimoda*, Ichiro Murase*
Dai Mochinaga**, and Katsushi Kobayashi***
* Waseda University
** Mitsubishi Research Institute Inc., *** National Institute of Advanced Science and Technology (AIST)

2. Agenda Introduction Overview of i-Path More Applications Conclusion
Background and Motivation
Applications
Overview of i-Path
Data Collection
New Software
More Applications
Conclusion
Acknowledgement

3. The Goal of i-Path project
Accessible Information between the hosts
Observing the information disclosure policy of all stakeholders along the path

4. Background Growing demand for backbone bandwidth
Introduction
Background
Growing demand for backbone bandwidth
Network performance fluctuation (e.g. throughput)
Routers keep rich information
Routing table, Link utilization
Temperature, Location, Contact point, Supply voltage etc.
Not easy to collect right information and to utilize information along the path
Because of …
Observe the information disclosure policy
Status of network depends on variety of factors

5. Introduction
Motivation
Disclosing information leads to improved End-to-End visibility
End-to-End visibility provides benefit to end hosts and operators
Monitoring network status
Reporting events and troubleshooting
Reduction in operational cost
Providing transparency of underlying networks

6. Applications Enhanced Congestion Control Best peer selection in
Introduction
Applications
Enhanced Congestion Control
Best peer selection in
P2P communication applications
Adjust optimal bit rate in VoD
Dynamic network configuration
(e.g. according to Time zones)
Selection of the appropriate path (e.g. Not violating policies related to content management)

7. Data Collection Explicit Network Information Collection Along a Path
Overview
Data Collection
Explicit Network Information Collection Along a Path
SIRENS *(Simple Internet Resource Notification Scheme)
Based on the cross layer approach
Bottleneck bandwidth
Interface queue capacity
Corruption losses etc.
Scalable network information measurement
* K. Nakauchi and K. Kobayashi. An explicit router　feedback framework for high bandwidth-delay product　networks. Computer Networks, 51(7):1833–1846, 2007.

8. Structure of shim-header
Overview
Structure of shim-header
Inserted between the network and transport headers

9. Information Disclosure
Overview
Information Disclosure
Prohibit to access some Information on routers
Unwilling to disclose inside network status
Security
Cost
Each ISP has a disclosure policy
End hosts have their disclosure policy
Negotiation: requests and responses
OK to Disclose?
OK to Disclose?
OK to Disclose?

10. Observing Information Disclosure Policies
Selective requests and responses
Policy: Alice & Bob allow to disclose beyond 3rd hop router.
Implementation:
Alice does not send req. for her neighbor & the next neighbor routers, i.e.,1st & 2nd hops.
Bob does not send back res. same as Alice, i.e., 6th & 7th hops.
Results:
Alice obtains 3-5 hops data.
Bob obtains 3-7 hops data

11. New Software Tools Receiver Sender i-Path Router (a) Send a SIRENS
request packet
TCP Data
TCP Data
TCP Data
TCP Data
(b)
Receive the request packet and reply
Receiver
Sender
i-Path Router
(c)
Receive the reply packet and make xml files
TCP Data
TCP Data
Developed software
xml

12. Snapshot of the Visualization Tool
Dark colored (Blue) routers
Data Collection: Enabled
Gray colored routers
Data Collection: Not enabled or Not Exist

13. Network Threat Detection
More applications
Network Threat Detection
S.Nogami, A.Shimoda and S.Goto, Detection of DDoS attacks by i-Path flow analysis, (in Japanese, to appear) 72nd National Convention of IPSJ, Mar
DDoS Packets
destination: TARGET
Source IP Address: Spoofed IP Address
TARGET
IP address : X.X.X.X
Internet
Back　Scatter Packets
destination: Spoofed IP Address
Source: TARGET
Attackers
extraneous hosts/servers

14. NAT traversal Different kind of NATs:
More applications
Different kind of NATs:
full cone, restricted cone, port restricted cone, symmetric
K.Tobe, A.Shimoda and S.Goto, NAT traversal with transparent routers, (in Japanese, to appear) 72nd National Convention of IPSJ, Mar. 2010
Symmetric NAT
Symmetric NAT is the most difficult NAT of all.
In a symmetric NAT, any request from an internal IP address
and a port number to some destination IP address and
port number is mapped to a unique external IP address and
a unique port number.
If the same host sends a packet from
the same source address and the same port number but to
a different destination, a different mapping is used.
Only the external host that receives a packet from an internal
host can send a UDP packet back to the internal host.
Symmetric NATs are used when high security communication
is required.
And Symmetric NATs are installed as routers in business enterprises and also as high-end routers
for home use.
symmetric NAT

15. Current Status and Future Plans
i-Path project wiki
Dai Mochinaga, Katsushi Kobayashi, Shigeki Goto, Akihiro Shimoda, and Ichiro Murase, Collecting Information to Visualize Network Status, 28th APAN Network Research Workshop, pp.1—4, 2009.
Network application utilizing collected information
Demonstration on R&D testbed: JGN in Japan
Demonstration at SC09, Portland, OR, Nov. 2009

16. Conclusion We proposed new method disclosing network information
i-Path
Offering end-to-end visibility, transparency
Observing privacy protection
Respecting disclosure policy

17. Acknowledgement
This project is supported by National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), Japan.