Internet performance monitoring

The growing diversity of services in the Internet is motivating research to improve measurability of traffic and Internet performance. This paper surveys current projects and tools for Internet performance monitoring, ranging from passive router-based traffic flow measurement methods to large-scale active performance monitoring projects. The tools and methods are discussed according to their protocol layer, starting from the network layer (ATM, MPLS) to IP/ICMP and transport/application layers. At each protocol layer the strengths and limitations of the methods are highlighted. Finally, issues and challenges for future research are reviewed.