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Network Working Group Internet Activities Board
Request for Comments: 1262 Vinton G. Cerf/CNRI, Editor
October 1991
Guidelines for Internet Measurement Activities
Status of this Memo
This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does
not specify an Internet standard. Distribution of this memo is
unlimited.
Summary
Measurement of the Internet is critical for future development,
evolution and deployment planning. Internet-wide activities have the
potential to interfere with normal operation and must be planned with
care and made widely known beforehand. This document offers guidance
to researchers planning Internet measurements.
This RFC represents IAB guidance for researchers considering
measurement experiments on the Internet. This RFC does not represent
a standard for the Internet but the Internet Activities Board
strongly urges that Internet users follow the guidelines out of
courtesy and professional consideration for the Internet community.
Guidelines
The Internet has undergone dramatic growth in connectivity, use, and
quality of service over the past several years. As this growth
continues and the Internet is used for increasingly diverse and
demanding purposes, it is vital to collect data about a range of
functions, from low-level packet switching services to considerations
for the networking expectations of individual applications. Such
data is vital to research and engineering planning activities, as
well as to ensure the continued development of the operational
infrastructure. Yet, it is also important that data collection
activities do not interfere with the operational viability and
stability of the network, and do not violate considerations regarding
privacy, security, and acceptable use policies of the network. In
this light, the Internet Activities Board offers the following basic
guidelines for network measurement activities.
In general, any data collection activity should be undertaken with
professional consideration of its impact on the services and users of
the network, and activities should be planned to achieve operational
Internet Activities Board [Page 1]
RFC 1262 Measurement Guidelines October 1991
or research goals with minimal impact. In some cases, data may be
collected continuously, for example to measure packet counts or the
distribution of use of specific applications. In other cases, the
planned investigations will be too demanding to be undertaken
continuously, because of the intensity of effort required by the
researcher or the traffic load on the underlying network
infrastructure. Any data collection activity should be designed with
careful consideration of this type of issue, and should be tested
thoroughly before being deployed on the Internet. Any individual
initiating a network measurement activity should alert the relevant
service providers using mechanisms such as bulletin boards, mailing
lists and individual mail communications.
Furthermore, the data being collected must not be gathered using
break-ins to network systems or other illegal or unethical
techniques. If a measurement activity might be construed as a
possible security intrusion, the researcher should make it easy for a
system administrator at a remote site to determine that the activity
is not a break in attempt, by informing the CERT, making information
about the study easily available by anonymous FTP or other means
[1,2,3].
More specifically, an individual attempting a network measurement
activity should ensure that the following conditions are met:
1) the data collected will not violate privacy, security, or
acceptable use concerns,
2) if the aggregated data has a potential for privacy intrusions,
the researcher must protect privacy, for example by limiting
published statistics in such a fashion that individual users or
institutions are not identified,
3) if the data collection activity may be construed to be a
security violation, the researchers are strongly advised to
inform the CERT in advance, and, if applicable, request some
guidance,
4) the data collection does not unduly load or otherwise interfere
with the network or attached machines, in particular, if at all
feasible, non-invasive measurement, like passive monitoring,
should be considered as the first choice,
5) if there is an operational impact, the service providers must be
contacted,
6) the study goals, methodology, and plans are widely available, in
a fashion that requires minimal effort to locate and retrieve,
Internet Activities Board [Page 2]
RFC 1262 Measurement Guidelines October 1991
and
7) if the activity would impose undue burden on a remote machine or
network, the measurements should not be performed without prior
explicit permission.
References
[1] Internet Activities Board, "Ethics and the Internet", RFC-1087,
January 1989.
[2] Holbrook, P., and J. Reynolds, (Eds.), "Site Security
Handbook", RFC-1244, FYI-8, CICnet and USC Information Sciences
Institute, July 1991.
[3] Computer Emergency Response Team/Coordination Center (CERT/CC),
Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University,
Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890, Internet E-mail:
cert@cert.sei.cmu.edu, Telephone: 412-268-7090 24-hour hotline.
Security Considerations
The body of this memo does discuss security issues related to network
measurement, particularly the potential confusion of benign
measurement with hostile security attacks.
Author's Address
Vinton G. Cerf
Chair of the IAB
Corporation for National Research Initiatives
1895 Preston White Drive, Suite 100
Reston, VA 22091
1-703-620-8990
VCerf@NRI.RESTON.VA.US
Internet Activities Board [Page 3]