DNS research
The Day in the Life of the Internet project
The Day in the Life of the Internet (DITL) is an annual event that involves the collection of a diverse range of Internet measurement data over a 48-hour period. The aim of the project is to collect data for use by network researchers around the world to aid in the discussion of the operational future of the Internet.
APNIC became involved in this event for the first time in late March 2008.
During the event, APNIC captured the DNS packetflows to its DNS servers in Brisbane, Hong Kong, and Tokyo, and contributed 329 gigabytes of data to the project. The total data collected by The Day in the Life of the Internet 2008 exceeded 2 terabytes, sourcing data from a range of contributors.
By arranging to capture the full dataflow (both queries and responses) for the DNS, it is hoped that information about worldwide trends in Internet usage can be measured. CAIDA's own website on the project provides a summary of the kinds of questions that researchers hope to be able to answer from analysis of the data. These cover areas such as the role of locality in Internet usage, workload and traffic/performance measures, questions about the DNS itself as a service, addressing and routing, and social issues.
Researchers interested in using the captured packetflows will be able to access the data at DatCat.
The Day In The Life of the Internet is coordinated by the Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis (CAIDA) and the DNS Operations, Analysis, and Research Center (OARC). It began as a trial-run in 2006 and was followed by the first full-scale event in 2007. The Day In The Life of the Internet 2007 collected data from DNS root servers, and AS112 and Open Root servers, as well as campus and transit networks.
DNS data types and capture method
APNIC was able to provide the data from all its DNS nameservers by deploying new data collection servers, based on a 'passive tap' model. Highly reliable network tap devices were deployed at each location and inserted in front of the network connections of each APNIC nameserver. This allowed a new host to be connected and to collect the data without any impact on the deployed service.
Data collection, reduction, and presentation are facilitated by OARC (the DNS Operations, Analysis, and Research Centre) using free open source software developed by The Measurement Factory.
Because APNIC provides both reverse-DNS (in-addr.arpa and ip6.arpa) nameservers and also acts as a secondary nameserver for a range of ccTLDs, it was in a position to provide data capture both in forward and reverse DNS contexts. APNIC is a secondary nameserver for several of the other RIRs' ranges and therefore also provided data on DNS services for address ranges beyond the Asia Pacific address management footprint.