Call for Papers: Measuring Network Quality for End-Users Workshop

[IAB Executive Administrative Manager <[e-mail]>]

Measuring Network Quality for End-Users Workshop

An Internet Architecture Board virtual workshop

Web page: https://www.iab.org/activities/workshops/network-quality/

Call for Papers

The Internet in 2021 is quite different from what it was 10 years ago. 
Today, it is a crucial part of everyone’s daily life. People use the 
Internet for their social life, for their daily jobs, for routine 
shopping, and for keeping up with major events. An increasing number of 
people can access a Gigabit connection, which would be hard to imagine a 
decade ago. And, thanks to improvements in security, people trust the 
Internet for both planning their finances and for everyday payments.

At the same time, some aspects of end-user experience have not improved 
as much. Many users have typical connection latency that remains at 
decade-old levels. Despite significant reliability improvements in data 
center environments, end users often see interruptions in service. 
Transport improvements, such as QUIC, Multipath TCP, and TCP Fast Open 
are still not fully supported in some networks. Likewise, various 
advances in the security and privacy of user data are not widely 
supported, such as encrypted DNS to the local resolver.

We believe that one of the major factors behind this lack of progress is 
the popular perception that throughput is the often sole measure of the 
quality of Internet connectivity. With such narrow focus, people don’t 
consider questions such as:

  • What is the latency under typical working conditions?
  • How reliable is the connectivity across longer time periods?
  • Does the network allow the use of a broad range of protocols?
  • What services can be run by clients of the network?
  • What kind of IPv4, NAT or IPv6 connectivity is offered, and are 
    there firewalls?
  • What security mechanisms are available for local services, such as 
    DNS?
  • To what degree are the privacy, confidentiality, integrity and 
    authenticity of user communications guarded?

Improving these aspects of network quality will likely depend on 
measurement and exposing metrics to all involved parties, including to 
end users in a meaningful way. Such measurements and exposure of the 
right metrics will allow service providers and network operators to 
focus on the aspects that impacts the users’ experience most and at the 
same time empowers users to choose the Internet service that will give 
them the best experience.

The IAB is holding this workshop to convene interested researchers, 
network operators, and Internet technologists to share their experiences 
and to collaborate on the steps needed to define properties and metrics 
with the goal of improving Internet access for all users.

The workshop will discuss the following questions:

 1. What are the fundamental properties of a network that contribute to 
    good user experience?
 2. What metrics quantify these properties, and how to collect such 
    metrics in a practical way?
 3. What are the best practices for interpreting those metrics, and 
    incorporating those in a decision making process?
 4. What are the best ways to communicate these properties to service 
    providers and network operators?
 5. How can these metrics be displayed to users in a meaningful way?

We realize that the answers to these questions will vary depending on 
the different experiences of the participants. For example, a commercial 
video streaming platform may prioritize higher throughput and to rely on 
latency-hiding techniques, while a massively-multiplayer online game may 
prioritize lower jitter, and invest into techniques for graceful 
degradation of the user experience in case of reduced network capacity. 
At the same time, researchers from the academia may be looking at 
properties and metrics that haven’t been adopted by the industry at all. 
Likewise, participants may endorse different methodologies for 
interpreting the metrics and for making decisions. We are actively 
looking for identifying such methodologies and for capturing the 
respective best practices.

While this workshop isn’t focusing on the solution space, we are 
welcoming submissions that dive into particular technologies, to the 
extent of helping to set the context for the discussion. Comparing the 
merits of specific solutions, however, is outside of the workshop’s 
scope.

Interested participants are invited to submit position papers on the 
workshop questions. Paper size is not limited, but brevity is 
encouraged. Interested participants who have published relevant academic 
papers may submit these as a position paper, optionally with a short 
abstract. The workshop itself will be a virtual meeting over several 
sessions, with focused discussion based on the position paper topics 
received.

Logistics

  • Submissions Due: Monday 2nd August 2021, midnight AOE (Anywhere On 
    Earth)
  • Invitations Issued by: Monday 16th August 2021
  • Workshop Date: This will be a virtual workshop, spread over three 
    days:
    - 1400-1800 UTC Tue 14th September 2021
    - 1400-1800 UTC Wed 15th September 2021
    - 1400-1800 UTC Thu 16th September 2021

Workshop co-chairs: Wes Hardaker, Eugeny Khorov, Omer Shapira

The Program Committee members:

Jari Arkko, Olivier Bonaventure, Vint Cerf, Stuart Cheshire, Sam 
Crowford, Nick Feamster, Jim Gettys, Toke Hoiland-Jorgensen, Geoff 
Huston, Cullen Jennings, Mirja Kuehlewind, Jason Livingood, Matt 
Mathias, Randall Meyer, Kathleen Nichols, Christoph Paasch, Tommy Pauly, 
Greg White, Keith Winstein.

Send Submissions to: [e-mail].

Position papers from academia, industry, the open source community and 
others that focus on measurements, experiences, observations and advice 
for the future are welcome. Papers that reflect experience based on 
deployed services are especially welcome. The organizers understand that 
specific actions taken by operators are unlikely to be discussed in 
detail, so papers discussing general categories of actions and issues 
without naming specific technologies, products, or other players in the 
ecosystem are expected. Papers should not focus on specific protocol 
solutions.

The workshop will be by invitation only. Those wishing to attend should 
submit a position paper to the address above; it may take the form of an 
Internet-Draft.

All inputs submitted and considered relevant will be published on the 
workshop website. The organisers will decide whom to invite based on the 
submissions received. Sessions will be organized according to content, 
and not every accepted submission or invited attendee will have an 
opportunity to present as the intent is to foster discussion and not 
simply to have a sequence of presentations.

Position papers from those not planning to attend the virtual sessions 
themselves are also encouraged. A workshop report will be published 
afterwards.