ACM Tech Talk

Studying Internet Latency via TCP Queries to DNS

Dr. Yannis Labrou
Principal Data Architect, Verisign

1:30-2:30pm Friday, 27 February 2015, ITE 456, UMBC

Every day Verisign processes upwards of 100 billion authoritative DNS requests for .COM and .NET from all corners of the earth. The vast majority of these requests are via the UDP protocol. Because UDP is connectionless, it is impossible to passively estimate the latency of the UDP-based requests. A very small percentage of these requests though, are over TCP, thus providing the means to estimate the latency of specific requests and paths for a subset of the hosts that interact with Verisign’s network infrastructure.

In this work, we combine this relatively small number of datapoints from TCP (on the order of a few hundred million per day) with the much larger dataset of all DNS requests. Our focus is the process of data analysis of real world, imperfect data at very large scale with the goals of understanding network latency at an unprecedented magnitude, identifying large volume, high latency clients and improving their latency. We discuss the techniques we used for data selection and analysis and we present the results of a variety of analyses, such as deriving regional and country patterns, estimations for query latency for different countries and network locations, and techniques for identifying high latency clients.

It is important to note that latency results we will report are based on passive measurements from, essentially, the entire Internet. For this experiment we do not have control over the client side — where they are, which software, their configuration, their network congestion. This is significantly different from latency studied in any active measurement infrastructure such as Planet Lab, RIPE Atlas, Thousand Eyes, Catchpoint, etc.

Dr. Yannis Labrou is Principal Data Architect at Verisign Labs where he leads efforts to create value from the wealth of data that Verisign’s operations generate every day. He brings to Verisign 20 years of experience in conceiving, creating and bringing to fruition innovations; combining thinking big with laboring through the pains of materializing ideas. He has done so in an academic environment, at a startup company, while conducting government and DoD/DARPA sponsored research and for a global Fortune 200 company.

Before joining Verisign, Dr. Labrou was a Senior Researcher at Fujitsu Laboratories of America, Director of Technology and member of the executive staff of PowerMarket, an enterprise application software start-up company and a Research Assistant Professor at UMBC. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from UMBC, where his research focused on software agents, and a Diploma in Physics from the University of Athens, Greece. He has authored more than 40 peer-reviewed publications, with almost 4000 citations and he has been awarded 14 patents from the USPTO. His current research focus is data through the entire lifecycle from generation to monetization.

– more information and directions: http://bit.ly/UMBCtalks –

The White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans will host “Supporting Academic Success of Youth in Juvenile Justice Settings” at UMBC on February 25, 2015, in partnership with the Choice Program at UMBC and the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education.

Speakers from the US Department of Education, Maryland Department of Juvenile Services, The Choice Program at UMBC, and the University of Maryland School of Social Work will discuss how to support the development and success of young people in the juvenile justice system.

Community members who are interested in attending the event can RSVP here.

Renetta Tull, associate vice provost for graduate education and postdoctoral affairs, is featured on the cover of Women in Data: Cutting-Edge Practitioners and Their Views on Critical Skills, Background, and Education. The report includes interviews with 15 women about their success, motivation and views on opportunities available to women in tech fields.

In her interview, Tull focuses on the need for early exposure to computing careers. She says, “Women can be more involved with computing fields, and certainly, opportunities for ubiquitous computing limit restrictions for engagement. However, women need to know that they are invited to the table; they need to see images that show that they are not excluded and they need regular and continuous access to computing environments early, within the K–12 years…”

Click here to learn more about Women in Data and download a free copy of the report.

The PROMISE AGEP, The Graduate School at UMBC, and The UMBC Office of Postdoctoral Affairs are co-sponsoring the “Advanced Statistics” seminar series with Dr. Christopher Rakes. Dr. Rakes is presenting series on structural equation modeling and meta-analysis. The next lunch seminar is on Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2015. A live webcast will be available on our PROMISE YouTube channel for those who aren’t available to have lunch with us, to learn in person.

Session 4: Feb. 11, 2015
Structural Equation Modeling
Testing the Validity of a Causal Structure

Lunch and learn: 

Lunch will be served at the beginning of the seminar. You may eat during the session.

Live Webcast

Former IMSD Meyerhoff Fellow Dr. Peter Mercredi (Biochemistry) came to UMBC back in 2006 as a participant in the UMBC Summer Biomedical Training Program (SBTP).  As an undergraduate, Peter attended the City College of New York (CUNY).  As participant of the SBTP, Peter was a part of the HHMI EXROP (Howard Hughes Medical Institute – Exceptional Research Opportunities Program) where he worked with Dr. Michael Summers.  

Dr. Mercredi began graduate school in 2008 and worked in the laboratory of Dr. Michael Summers where his research focused on the myristylated matrix. Studies have shown that subtle mutations in HIV-1 MA can retarget Gag assembly to intracellular compartments. Structurally characterizing how these mutations result in atypical membrane targeting may elucidate key features in MA for the development of novel HIV inhibitors.  Over the years, Peter mentored several undergraduates and presented his research at several conferences. Dr. Mercredi began his postdoctoral fellowship at St. Jude in October 2014

For more information about Dr. Mercredi visit:

http://meyerhoffgrad.umbc.edu/peter-mercredi/

 

“Like books and black lives, albums still matter.”

Prince spoke these words as he introduced the Album of the Year award at this year’s Grammys. For a show that typically thrives on a healthy amount of scandal, the theme of the night was more like a solemn call to social justice than everyone berating Kanye (sure, he did do this, but for Kanye that’s pretty tame.)

 

The usual suspects like Katy Perry were there, but instead of dancing next to left shark, she delivered a somber performance for victims of domestic violence. Before her, Brooke Axtell, a survivor, spoke about her experience. The segment started off with President Obama calling on musicians to use their gifts to bring light to the issue.

And yes there were the predictable arguments about snubs (Twitter asked – Who is Beck?). But it also seemed as if there was some deliberate planning to give credit where it’s due.

Following the omission of Ava DuVernay’s critically acclaimed Selma in the Acting and Directing categories at the upcoming Oscars, the Grammys did not avoid the “Black Lives Matter” movement or the timely lessons and reminders the film offers us.

Beyoncé closed the show by covering “Take My Hand Precious Lord” by legendary gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, who was portrayed by Ledisi in the film. John Legend and Common followed with their song “Glory” from the soundtrack. 

In the film Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his allies move from one battleground to the next in order to gain achievements. It seemed like the theme of the this year’s Grammys was that music has the power to uplift us and motivate us, to inspire us to continue to push forward whether we are walking in the streets of Ferguson against systematic racism or working to change a society that often tries to ignore and justify the horrible realities of domestic violence.

       

“Selma is now.”

Dr. Tashauna Felix earned her undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences from Bennett College in North Carolina.  Tashauna entered UMBC in 2003 in the M.S. program in Applied Molecular Biology (APMB) an intensive 9-month Master’s Degree program.  Upon completion of the AMB program, Tashauna was encouraged to continue on to the Ph.D.  Tashauna began her PhD in Biological Sciences in 2004.  As a doctoral student, Tashauna worked in the laboratory of Dr. Jeff Leips where her research focused on understanding the genetic basis of the age related changes in the immune response using drosophila melanogaster.  Upon completion of her doctoral degree in 2010, Tashauna remained in the Leips lab for almost a year.  Later, Tashauna was offered a position on UMBC’s campus with the “new” UMBC iCubed Program, an NSF funded study examining the relative effectiveness of four student success interventions in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).  While working with the iCubed program, Tashauna also taught Anatomy and Physiology at the Community College of Baltimore County  (CCBC).  In August 2014, while Tashauna was considering her next career move, Tashauna was offered an Adjunct Lecturer position in the Biological Sciences Department.  What was most exciting about this offer is that the course that Dr. Felix would teach (Approaches to Molecular Biology – BIOL 626) is a course that she thoroughly enjoyed as a Master’s student!  Less than a week later, Tashauna was offered a full-time faculty position at the Community College of Baltimore (CCBC). Dr. Felix has already conveyed that she will pursue research positions in the next year or two.

More information about Dr. Felix can be found at:

http://meyerhoffgrad.umbc.edu/tashauna-felix-ph-d/