Measuring Net Neutrality

Google, partners release net neutrality tools

Google and partners unveil a set of Internet performance measurement tools.

Google and a group of partners have released a set of tools designed to help broadband customers and researchers measure performance of Internet connections.

The set of tools, at MeasurementLab.net, includes a network diagnostic tool, a network path diagnostic tool and a tool to measure whether the user's broadband provider is slowing BitTorrent peer-to-peer (P-to-P) traffic. Coming soon to the M-Lab applications is a tool to determine whether a broadband provider is giving some traffic a lower priority than other traffic, and a tool to determine whether a provider is degrading certain users or applications.

"Transparency is our goal," said Vint Cerf, chief Internet evangelist at Google and a co-developer of TCP/IP. "Our intent is to make more [information] visible for all who are interested in the way the network is functioning at all layers."

In Good Gear Guide

Linear Programming

For those that are working on optimisation of some sort, Linear Programming (LP) is a mathematical method generally used to get optimal solutions for one problem.  We have an objective function that we want to maximise or minimise (maximising profits, minimising congestion), we have a series of constraints (a certain amount of budget, a certain capacity in a line), and LP gives the optimal result(s), if there is one (how much to produce to maximise profit? where to route traffic to minimise congestion?).

In my work on Traffic Engineering I bang myself quite often with LP. Since this is something new to me it is sometimes hard to grasp papers that use this technique. And I've realised that most of my colleague researchers tend not to like very much of papers that have lots of mathematical formulae... :) but sometimes they are indeed fundamental. Now I've found an excellent tutorial that explains in an amazingly intelligible and simple manner this mathematical method. Check it here:

LP Tutorial

Communications of the ACM

Besides other interesting stuff, there is a nice discussion on network neutrality this month in Communications of the ACM (between Barbara van Schewick and David Farber). Also a nice article by Akamai’s Tom Leighton on improving the performance of the Internet (is the bottleneck moving from the last mile to the middle mile?). For those interested, check it here:

http://mags.acm.org/communications/200902/?CFID=423293&CFTOKEN=63848239

Bluesci, issue 14

The new issue of Bluesci is now available online (pdf version). 

For those who don’t know, Bluesci is Cambridge's science magazine, produced by students of the University. I have a short article on electronic paper that you can find also in the website, here.

Charles Darwin on BBC

For those, as me, admirers of the work of the great scientist Charles Darwin, BBC is airing a season of TV and radio programmes of great interest, 200 years after his birth and 150 after “The Origin of Species”. Check everything in here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/darwin/

I also think it is worth going to the National History Museum one of these days:

http://www.darwin200.org/

Flowers in Science

My friend Mathias is one of the two first authors of a paper in this week's Science magazine. Congratulations, Mathias!

Bright Shiny Flowers

The study of flower color has primarily focused on chemical pigmentation. Whitney et al. (p. 130) explore how the structural features on the petal surface of a tulip flower generate color independently of chemical pigmentation via iridescence. Floral iridescence may result in an ultraviolet signal that is visible to insects. Bumblebees can learn to use information from iridescence to select among potential food sources. Thus, iridescence may contribute to plant-pollinator interactions.

 

Abstract: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/323/5910/130

Full Text: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/323/5910/130

Intel breaks record with optical CMOS device

Silicon-based photo detector beats III-V components

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Researchers from Intel Corp. have demonstrated a photo detector built in CMOS that the company claims is the highest performance optical component of its class to date. The avalanche photodetector (APD) described in a paper in the journal Nature Photonics shows the way to designs that could increase the distance or lower power and cost of optical links, Intel said.

The research effort is one of many small steps forward in silicon photonics in recent years from Intel. The company aims to commercialize some of its work in PC platforms in as little as two to three years, said Mario Paniccia, director of Intel's photonics lab who reported the advance.

Intel's APD achieved a gain-bandwidth product of 340 GHz, higher than any previous device made in any process technology. The metric is a broad measure of the component's signal amplification capability at any given speed.

"This is the first time a silicon photonics device has a better performance than a III-V device, in this case specifically indium phosphide," said Paniccia. "We started with goal of getting [in silicon] 90 percent of the performance of [more] exotic materials with an order of magnitude less cost, but we now have a silicon devoice that is better performance than anything measured in indium phosphide," he added.

APDs are primarily used today in relatively costly modules enabling optical links at 10 Gbits/second over tens of kilometers. The Intel APD could support devices with throughput up to 40 Gbits/s at an order of magnitude less cost, Intel said.

In EE Times

Abstract of the Nature Photonic paper in here, full paper in here