[Colloq] Fw: Reminder-TODAY Thesis proposal - Measuring and understanding performance in the mobile Internet- April 5- 9:30 am- WVH 166

[DiFazio, Danielle]

________________________________________
From: DiFazio, Danielle
Sent: Wednesday, March 23, 2016 2:10:14 PM
To: colloq at lists.ccs.neu.edu
Subject: Thesis proposal - Measuring and understanding performance in the mobile Internet- April 5- 9:30 am- WVH 166

Title: Measuring and understanding performance in the mobile Internet
Speaker: Arash Molavi Kakhki
Date: Tuesday, April 5th 2016
Time: 9:30 am

Location: WVH 166

Abstract:

In the past decade, mobile Internet access has gone from limited capacity and reliability 2G, to 4G technologies with high speed Internet access. Mobile phones have also evolved from simple voice and text devices to smart phones and tablets with ample resources that have dramatically improved user experience and popularity of smart devices. The combination of fast Internet access and powerful mobile devices has contributed to a rapid shift from desktop computers to smart devices for everyday online activities, hence an ever growing demand for fast and reliable mobile connectivity. The increase of mobile Internet usage brings its own challenges. For example ISPs are having a difficult time keeping up with the growing demand and have often relied more on traffic management policies and resource allocation optimization rather than expanding their capacity. In order to make advancements in mobile networks, we need tools to give us more visibility into these networks to understand their performance and unique properties that differ from fixed-line networks. In my thesis, I will provide tools and measurement techniques and results to improve visibility into mobile network performance from two different perspectives: a)understanding mobile network operator policies and b)understanding transport layer performance as seen from mobile clients. First, I develop techniques and tools that shed lights onto mobile network operator policies without requiring any special access to devices or ISPs. This is important because mobile networks are not transparent about their traffic management policies, and the impact of these policies on users's experience is poorly understood. This is largely because mobile networks and devices are locked down and opaque, and my work demonstrates that it is possible to overcome this limitation. Next, I propose to apply my differentiation detecting technique to conduct a case study of a recent instance of controversial differentiation: T-Mobile's new service BingeOn. Finally, I propose to investigate Google's new experimental transport protocol, QUIC, and perform an extensive analysis on how HTTP/S traffic over QUIC compares to TCP based protocol in a mobile network. This work can help to improve QUIC to address unique properties of the mobile environment.

Committee:

Prof. David Choffnes
Prof. Alan Mislove
Dr. Phillipa Gill
Prof. Christina Nita-Rotaru