RIPE Atlas

RIPE Atlas is a global, open, distributed Internet measurement platform, consisting of thousands of measurement devices that measure Internet connectivity in real time.

History

RIPE Atlas was established in 2010 by the RIPE Network Coordination Centre. As of April 2022, it was composed of around 12,000 probes and more than 800 anchors around the world.[1]

Technical details

RIPE Atlas probe (version 4)
  • Measurement types: The measurement devices (probes and anchors) perform IPv4 and IPv6 traceroute, ping, DNS, NTP and other measurements.
  • Atlas Probe device types:
  • Atlas Anchor device types
    • Version 2: Soekris Net6501-70 board in the 1U 19-inch rack-mounted case with additional SSD
    • Version 3: PC Engines APU2C2/APU2C4 in a 1U 19-inch rack-mounted case with additional SSD
  • Probes and Anchors can also be hosted in a virtual machine, which is beneficial for organizations with existing server infrastructure[6][7]
  • The back-end architecture was described in detail in the September 2015 edition of the Internet Protocol Journal [8]

Community

Anyone can volunteer to host a RIPE Atlas probe.[9] Probes are free of charge, low maintenance, and can be plugged in behind a home router or in a data center.

Organisations that want additional RIPE Atlas measurements targeting their network can host a RIPE Atlas anchor.[10]

Tools for visualizing and analyzing RIPE Atlas measurement data are used by network operators for troubleshooting and network monitoring.[11]

Open source software tools, written by RIPE Atlas users, are available in the repository for community contributions on GitHub.[12]

Several hundred individuals also support RIPE Atlas as "ambassadors" by promoting participation and distributing probes. Organizations also support RIPE Atlas as sponsors.[13]

Multiple hackerspaces have installed RIPE Atlas probes and have their own project about displaying the probes presence.[14]

Research papers

All the data collected by RIPE Atlas is open data and is made publicly available to users and the wider Internet community.

  • Luconi, Valerio; Vecchio, Alessio (April 2023). "Impact of the first months of war on routing and latency in Ukraine". Computer Networks. 224. Elsevier: 109596. arXiv:2208.09202. doi:10.1016/j.comnet.2023.109596. Archived from the original on 2023-03-07. Retrieved 2023-05-23.
  • Candela, Massimo; Luconi, Valerio; Vecchio, Alessio (December 2021). "A worldwide study on the geographic locality of Internet routes". Computer Networks. 201. Elsevier: 108555. arXiv:2307.08120. doi:10.1016/j.comnet.2021.108555. S2CID 239954817. Archived from the original on 2023-12-22. Retrieved 2023-05-23.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Global RIPE Atlas Network Coverage". Archived from the original on 2022-04-24. Retrieved 2022-04-24.
  2. ^ "XPort Pro - World's Smallest Linux Networking Server - Lantronix". lantronix.com. 2014-08-29. Archived from the original on 2015-04-01. Retrieved 2015-11-03.
  3. ^ Davies, Alun (26 February 2019). "New RIPE Atlas Version 4 Probes". RIPE. Archived from the original on 2019-03-01. Retrieved 2019-03-01.
  4. ^ "x.com". X (formerly Twitter). Archived from the original on 2022-11-06. Retrieved 2022-11-06.
  5. ^ "RIPE Atlas Software Probes". atlas.ripe.net. Archived from the original on 2024-01-04. Retrieved 2024-05-20.
  6. ^ "Installing a Virtual Machine Anchor". atlas.ripe.net. Archived from the original on 2024-02-28. Retrieved 2024-05-20.
  7. ^ "RIPE Atlas: A Global Internet Measurement Network" (PDF). Internet Protocol Journal. 18 (3). September 2015. ISSN 1944-1134. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2015-11-05. Retrieved 2015-11-03.
  8. ^ "RIPE Atlas Info - RIPE Atlas — RIPE Network Coordination Centre". atlas.ripe.net. Archived from the original on 2023-12-22. Retrieved 2015-11-03.
  9. ^ "Become a RIPE Atlas Anchor Host - RIPE Atlas — RIPE Network Coordination Centre". atlas.ripe.net. Archived from the original on 2015-04-02. Retrieved 2015-11-03.
  10. ^ "RIPE Atlas: User Views and Use Cases — RIPE Labs". labs.ripe.net. Archived from the original on 2016-03-05. Retrieved 2015-11-03.
  11. ^ "RIPE-Atlas-Community/ripe-atlas-community-contrib · GitHub". github.com. Archived from the original on 2013-06-08. Retrieved 2015-11-03.
  12. ^ "Community - RIPE Atlas — RIPE Network Coordination Centre". atlas.ripe.net. Archived from the original on 2015-04-02. Retrieved 2015-11-03.
  13. ^ "RIPE Atlas". HackerspaceWiki. Archived from the original on 2016-12-06. Retrieved 2017-02-22.