How does the Internet look like? How does it evolve?

DIMES is a distributed scientific research project, aimed to study the structure and topology of the Internet, with the help of a volunteer community (similar in spirit to projects such as SETI@Home).

Due to the way the Internet is engineered, distributing the Internet mapping effort is very important, and the only efficient way to measure the Internet structure is by asking you to participate. What we ask is not so much your CPU or bandwidth (which we hardly consume), but rather, your location. The more places we’ll have presence in, the more accurate our maps will be. Understanding the structure and function of the Internet is an important research task, that will allow to make the Internet a better place for all of us.

The DIMES agent performs Internet measurements such as TRACEROUTE and PING at a low rate, consuming about 1KB/s. The agent DOES NOT send any information about its host’s activity/personal data, and sends ONLY the results of its own measurements. Aside from giving a good feeling, running the DIMES agent will also provide you with maps of how the Internet looks from your home (currently) and will (in the future) provide you with a personalized ‘Internet weather report’ and other user-focused features.

We are welcoming DIMES pioneers who want to participate in our initial measurement effort and help us discover the Internet. If you want to suggest ideas or comment on DIMES you are welcome to visit our forums.

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