The Short Story
The main goal of this plugin is to reliably find problems in the network and raise alerts about them. As a user, you want to be sure that you are getting the service that you're paying for and be notified quickly about network problems, especially those that can lead to compensation for service interruption. For ISPs, this software helps to quickly localize and identify network problems so they can be fixed more rapidly and make users happy.
The NEWS (Network Early Warning System) plugin does this by passively monitoring your BitTorrent performance and checking for changes that might indicate problems with the network. Because a network problem can be anywhere, including your local network, NEWS uses corroboration from multiple users running in the same area (e.g., ISP or country). If enough people see the same problem in the same area, an alarm is raised. The main benefit of our solution is that it uses a common-sense approach of monitoring the natural traffic generated by your BitTorrent client, making detection of anomalies extremely lightweight.
Our NEWS plugin, which seamlessly installs into the Vuze/Azureus BitTorrent client, can be downloaded from >>>here<<<. Join the 4,711 users who have already done so!
Translators: If you're interested in translating NEWS messages into another langauge, download the messages file, translate it and send it to
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Updates
- 7/1/2008: Version 0.8 mainlined. This includes numerous bug fixes.
- 6/24/2008: Version 0.6 released as signed plugin for beta testing on large numbers of users.
- 5/19/2008: Version 0.2 released. This has significant bug fixes and is mature enough for general consumption.
- 5/7/2008: First version released.
For the Technical Crowd
Network-level instabilities are some of the most notable of the Internet's growing pains. Router misconfigurations, power outages, fiber cuts and slow convergance of interdomain routers are just a few of the problems causing end-to-end path failures. These routing problems can lead to dissatisfied users, due to reduced performance or loss of connectivity, and loss of revenue due to violations of service level agreements (SLAs).
The ability to identify and characterize the scope of network faults is thus important both for network operators and those using the network. Not only is it critical for network operators to recognize a problem with the network immediately, but given sufficient information, operators can use this knowledge to try to mitigate its potential impact on customers, e.g., by changing their network configurations or notifying other ISPs. Network customers, on the other hand, can use this knowledge to inform business decisions based on the reliability of alternative ISP networks and evaluate their ISPs' compliance with SLAs. Even emergent large-scale services, such as data sharing, content distribution or voice-over-IP services, could benefit from such information to optimize performance and reliability. However, determining the existence, let alone the impact, of such network problems is nontrivial.
Previous work has used routing messages, such as BGP, to identify inter- and intra-domain routing failures. Others have relied on some form of distributed active probing such as pings and traceroutes to point out routing disruptions and their effect on end-to-end services. Some recent efforts are exploring new monitoring techniques, together with the use of distributed research platforms as vantage points, for Internet-wide observations. These approaches, however, are inherently limited by their reliance on a relatively small number (e.g. 10-100s) of hosts that are not representative of the larger Internet. While most of these nodes are deployed in educational or research networks, often close to the core, much of the Internet's growth occurs in domains beyond their reach, such as behind NAT boxes and firewalls or in regions of the Internet not exposed by public BGP feeds.
Zhang et al. observe that wide-area services employing geographically-distributed nodes as clients, such as content distribution networks (CDN) and peer-to-peer (P2P) services, tend to communicate using a variety of network paths and thus are likely to observe a large portion of path instabilities. P2P systems, being among the largest wide-area services and covering most every corner of the Internet with large traffic volumes, are indeed an ideal vehicle for accessing the necessary end-host views of the network, and avoid most of the known limitations of smaller deployments. In response, we've created Network Early Warning System (NEWS), a monitoring system that exploits information passively gathered from BitTorrent, to identify anomalous network behavior that impacts application-perceived performance and confirm anomalies through corroboration from multiple vantage points and multiple data sources.
Similar goals have motivated a number of contribution-based approaches, such as DIMES and Neti@home, that (while promising) have seen limited adoption, arguably due to the altruistic model for participation. DipZoom attempts to address this problem using a micropayment model as incentive; however, managing such a system on a global scale is challenging. NEWS is designed, instead, as an extension to a popular, widely distributed P2P service, and to offer clear incentives for adoption in order to ensure the necessary broad coverage. Specifically, NEWS users contribute their network view in exchange for early warnings about network problems.
Why NEWS?
NEWS stands for Network Early Warning System. By using natural traffic generated by BitTorrent clients, NEWS is able to detect and localize anomalies quickly and efficiently, allowing network users to ensure they are getting the performance they pay for and network operators to correct potential network problems before they get out of hand.
People
Resources
- Official signed version (once installed, it automatically updates from Vuze)
- Disclaimer: By downloading and installing this plugin, you agree to the terms of this disclaimer.
- License: This software is released under the GPL. The source code can be found in the jar.
- NEWS Forum (for help and discussion)
- Changelog
- Vuze (formerly Azureus) client
- BitTorrent site
Frequently Asked Questions
- Does this really detect anomalies? According to extensive data collected from over 100,000 users worldwide, NEWS should work great. The more people use it, the better it works, so please spread the word!
- Why use the Vuze/Azureus BitTorrent client? For one, it's probably the most popular client in terms of use, so targeting Vuze gives us the greatest potential impact. Additionally, Vuze is Java-based, meaning anyone can run their software (and ours). Finally, Vuze offers a convenient plugin feature, requiring no changes to your existing Vuze client. And once you're running NEWS, it will automatically search for new versions and update itself for you!
- Does this work with my operating system? In short, yes. NEWS relies only on Vuze, so it should work anywhere that Vuze works. If you encounter a problem, please let us know!