Afek et al. characterized the formation and stability of policy atoms, groups of prefixes that share the same Autonomous System (AS) paths as observed by BGP collectors, a concept initially defined by Broido and Claffy in 2001. Policy atoms provide a valuable perspective on the inter-domain routing policies in the Internet. With the rapid growth and increasing complexity of the Internet since these studies, we believe it is important to reassess the implications and applicability of policy atoms. In this paper, we revisit the policy atom concept after two decades and replicate the study performed by Afek et al. to assess the current state of AS path sharing and shed light on the evolution of policy atoms. We demonstrate that the Internet still operates on the level of policy atoms rather than individual ASes, as prefixes within the same atom tend to experience changes in AS path simultaneously. We apply the concept of policy atoms in IPv6 and find that this observation also holds true for IPv6 prefixes. We also relate trends in the characteristics of policy atoms with the development of inter-domain routing policies. We highlight new insights generated by the perspective of policy atoms and their potential for further applications. Our code is publicly available to support reproducibility and to encourage future research on this topic.

The mobile telecommunication industry is undergoing continuous evolution to cope with ever increasing service requirements and expectations of end users. This has recently led to the rise of Mobile Network Aggregators (MNAs), a new type of global virtual operators that deliver mobile communication services by utilizing multiple Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), dynamically connecting to the one that best meets their customers’ needs based on location and time. MNAs can then offer optimized global coverage by connecting to local MNOs that have limited (e.g., national) geographic service. In this paper, we provide a first in-depth analysis of the operations of three major MNAs: Google Fi, Twilio, and Truphone. We conduct performance measurements across these MNAs for critical applications spanning DNS, web browsing, and video streaming, and compare their performance against that of a traditional MNO from two very diverse geographical locations, US and Spain. We find that MNAs may introduce some delay compared to local MNOs in the region where the user is roaming, yet they offer significant performance improvements over the traditional MNOs roaming model, such as home-routed roaming. To fully assess the potential benefits of the MNA model, we also carry out emulation studies assessing the potential performance gains that MNAs could achieve by deploying both control and user plane functions of open-source 5G implementations across different Amazon Web Services locations.

Large-scale Internet disruptions, ranging from complete disconnections to service degradations, are increasingly common, due to factors such as government-ordered shutdowns, infrastructure failures, and sophisticated traffic manipulation techniques. While existing detection platforms are effective at identifying complete disconnections, they fail to detect service degradations, such as those caused by throttling, intentional rerouting, or network attacks, which degrade performance without blocking connectivity. In this poster, we discuss our plan to improve Internet disruption investigation through additional metrics (loss, latency) and measurement techniques (traceroutes) to help identify such events and provide researchers with the network-level information necessary for investigation. Our method not only helps to identify service degradations missed by traditional connectivity checks but also provides data for generating insights into the underlying causes and impacts of Internet disruptions.

A new model of global virtual Mobile Network Operator (MNO) - the Mobile Network Aggregator (MNA) - has recently been gaining significant traction. MNAs provide mobile communications services to their customers by leveraging multiple MNOs, and connecting through the one that best match their customers' needs at any point in time (and space). MNAs naturally provide optimized global coverage by connecting through local MNOs across the different geographic regions they provide service. In this paper, we dissect the operations of three MNAs, namely, Google Fi, Twilio and Truphone. We perform measurements using the three selected MNAs to assess their performance for three major applications, namely, DNS, web browsing and video streaming. We benchmark their performance comparing it to the one of a traditional MNO. We find that even MNAs provide some delay penalty compared to the service accessed through the local MNOs in the geographic area where the user is roaming, they can significantly improve performance compared to traditional roaming model of the MNOs (e.g. home routed roaming). Finally, in order to fully quantify the potential benefits that can be realized using the MNA model, we perform a set of emulations by deploying both control and user plane functions of open-source 5G implementations in different locations of AWS, and measure the potential gains.