RIPE Atlas: November 2012 Update

Since December is a short month due to the holidays, in this update we report on progress we've made with RIPE Atlas since the October update of the roadmap . Here is the summary of the new features. Detailed plans for 2013 will be published early next year.

Current Status

• In mid-November we reached 2,048 RIPE Atlas probes - 136 more than the previous month. Apply for your own RIPE Atlas probe now!

• There are more than 5,000 RIPE Atlas users; 1,500 are RIPE NCC members

• New users who have come online in the last ten days are now featured on the RIPE Atlas community page (as shown in Figure 1 below)

Figure 1: New Arrivals featured on the RIPE Atlas community page

November Achievements

New and Improved Features

• We deployed the first two RIPE Atlas anchors . If you are interested in following this pilot project, please subscribe to the mailing list.

• We increased the number of active probes by reaching out to users and asking them to (re)connect probes that are disconnected.

• We created a new mailing list dedicated to RIPE Atlas sponsors.

• We published monthly top-ten lists to promote active users who:
• Show the longest probe uptime ("Always Up")
• Spend the most credits ("Big Spenders", as shown in Figure 2)
• Are new to RIPE Atlas ("New Arrivals")

Figure 2: Big Spenders featured on the community page

Internal Improvements

• We improved resiliency by removing single points of failure. For example, if there is a network disconnect, there will be no loss of collected measurement results, only a delay .

• We improved the overall stability by making each component more stable and minimising the impact of a failure on the users.

Postponed Until Next Month

• We will promote RIPE Atlas to the wider community by creating a new RIPE Atlas area on the main RIPE NCC website.

• We will continue working on the development of the new RIPE Atlas probe device: TP-Link model TL-MR 3020.

• We will make it easier for RIPE NCC members to access member-specific RIPE Atlas services from the LIR Portal.

In the Media

RIPE Atlas was nominated for the "Best Social Initiative" for 2012 by the Dutch chapter of the Internet Society. Another project won , but we received an original work of art that is now proudly displayed in our offices!

Figure 3: The comic RIPE Atlas received during the ISOC (Netherlands) 2012 Awards  ("Hey Atlas, got a new project?")

We looked at the effects Superstorm Sandy had on the global Internet, using RIPE Atlas to create interactive maps that follow the timeline of the hurricane. We plan to present these findings at the next NANOG meeting in February 2013.

Naked Probes

We also received media 2.0 attention! There were several blog posts about RIPE Atlas after it was presented at technical conferences. After one blog post in Russian (habrahabr.ru) that caused a huge increase in probe requests , there was one in Polish (OSWorld.pl) , and another follow-up one in Russian (SysAlex.com) .

However, some of them feature photos of "naked" probes, taken after users conducted their own "research" into the internal workings of the probes, with the probe's hardware exposed and even altered. We discourage such activities, as it makes it difficult or impossible to deploy new firmware on these probes. Please do not do that, guys!

Feedback

If you would like to give us your input or if you want to get in touch:

• For direct feedback: becha [at] ripe [dot] net or @Ms_Measurements (#RIPEAtlas)
• The RIPE Atlas mailing list for active users, also followed and answered by developers: ripe-atlas [at] ripe [dot] net
• If you want to report a bug or problem: atlas [at] ripe [dot] net

Learn more on the RIPE Atlas website .