Google targets throttling with new net measurement tools
Last Updated: Wednesday, January 28, 2009 | 5:27 PM ET
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Web surfers leery of having internet speeds slowed by their service providers can now confirm their suspicions with a little help from Google Inc.
The California-based company announced Wednesday the release of Measurement Lab (M-Lab), which allows users to measure connection speeds and test whether certain programs are being blocked.
The open platform is still in its infancy, Google says. But it is providing 36 servers to researchers in 12 locations in Europe in the United States, with the hope that they can come up with new applications to improve internet transparency.
At this point, there are only a few applications that users can use on the M-Lab site, including Glasnost, a tool that can tell users if their BitTorrent programs are being throttled.
The network diagnostic tool, meanwhile, can measure the speed of a user's internet connection.
Develops other tools
An application that allows users to monitor if they are being obstructed online isn't new, but Google says M-lab stands for more than just a throttle test — it provides the infrastructure for developing other tools to measure connectivity.
"M-Lab is intended to be a truly community-based effort, and we welcome the support of other companies, institutions, researchers, and users that want to provide servers, tools, or other resources that can help the platform flourish," Google vice-president Vint Cerf and principal engineer Stephen Stuart said on a Google blog.
Google has come out repeatedly in favour of net neutrality, the principle that the internet should be kept open and free from interference or restrictions from service providers.
It argued last year that Bell Canada is breaking Canadian telecommunications law by slowing certain internet traffic and urged action from the Canada Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.
The CRTC has since said the Bell has not broken any laws and will be allowed to continue throttling.
M-Lab has been in the works for a year. Google has collaborated with a variety of academics, as well as the PlanetLab consortium and the New America Foundation on M-Lab.
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