NSF Research: Same Bandwidth, More Data

Phys.org reports that "A team of researchers is working on technology that would allow mobile devices to send and receive more data using the same limited amount of bandwidth. The work is supported by a $1.08 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF - now in "outage") .. One way to get more use of the available bandwidth is through a technique called multi-input, multi-output (MIMO) communication, which uses the same radio frequency to transmit more than one stream of data simultaneously .. However, implementing the MIMO concept in small, mobile devices has been problematic .. Now a team of electrical engineers is working to develop a new radio receiver system that will allow small mobile devices to use MIMO technology. The system will include multiple antennas, a reconfigurable circuit, and new signal processing algorithms".

"We hope to have a proof of concept using two receivers by fall of 2015 and three to four receivers by fall of 2017," says Brian Floyd [pictured], an electrical engineering researcher at NC State who specializes in circuit design and is principal investigator (PI) of the NSF grant. "These approaches could allow the benefits of MIMO to be applied to systems in small devices, enhancing the download speeds for many common applications".

See "Researchers work to squeeze more data from bandwidth in mobile devices" - here.

Paper: The Use of DPI for Behavioral Advertising (Case Study: Nebuad and Phorm)

  

From time to time we see the return of Behavioral Advertising as a business opportunity for ISPs, despite the loud crash of these services few years ago. 

Recently I reported on several deployments - in Nigeria, Turkey, SaskTel, Marriott Hotels, Orange France, Romania and more. Today's deployments are usually based on an opt-in service, a very different model from the "we dont tell you what we do" model that failed the earlier players - Nebuad and Phorm (which is still there - see "Phorm's New Chinese Operation Valued at $155M" - here and behind some of the above deployments). 

A new research by Andreas Kuehn and Milton Mueller (pictured), Syracuse University, School of Information Studies, examines the political issues behind this service.

Abstract: 

 
This paper examines the use of deep packet inspection (DPI) in online advertising, and analyzes the effects public pressure, regulatory actions and judicial and policy-making proceedings had on those deployments. The research is part of a larger project on the effects of DPI on Internet governance which is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation [see "NSF Funds Research on DPI" - here]. DPI, which allows Internet service providers (ISPs) to monitor the content of data packets in real-time, can be considered a disruptive technology because of the way its use conflicts with pre-established principles and norms of Internet governance. 

In this comparative study, we examine the rise and fall of NebuAd in the U.S. and of Phorm in Europe. We also include some less visible companies and spill-overs to Brazil and South Korea. We conduct a comprehensive analysis of these cases – from the early development and secret trials of the technology to the regulatory actions, business failures and litigation in the aftermath. Looking at a timeline of several years that covers the dynamic technical, economic and institutional interactions at play, the framework contrasts distinct actors, actor constellations and modes of interaction across institutional settings to illustrate similar and divergent policy outcomes. This research is based upon comprehensive analysis of political and legal documents and a series of interviews with DPI vendors, Internet advocates, engineers, and advertisers.

The narrative follows four stages that we have found in similar case studies of DPI deployments: 1) unilateral, secret deployment, 2) uncontrolled public disclosure of the deployment, 3) civil activism around net neutrality and privacy norms, 4) political, legal and regulatory proceedings to resolve the conflicts. This framework highlights the interaction of technical, economic and institutional factors that are at work when politically contested technologies with a disruptive potential are deployed on the Internet. In this case, as in many others, the analysis shows how the deployments ran afoul of established principles and expectations and how the “notification” and “consent” practices so crucial to privacy law failed to bridge the gap between the expectations of Internet users and the formal legal definition applied by the courts. We show how this gap led to intense political pressure and market exit of DPI-based advertising platforms in both countries.

See and download from "Profiling the Profilers: Deep Packet Inspection and Behavioral Advertising in Europe and the United States" - here

Bell Canada and Rogers are still on the World's Top Throttlers List

  

MLabs, a project "funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation" (see "Syracuse University Research on Deep Packet Inspection" - here), published updated information on ISPs found to be throttling data, through DPI, for BitTorrent files sharing traffic.

".. we show the 10 or 11 ISPs who had the highest percentage of tests that yielded a positive result; that is, a result indicating that DPI was used to throttle or block BitTorrent. If an ISP’s result on the chart is 93%, for example, it means that 93 percent of the tests their users conducted using Glasnost produced a result that shows that the BitTorrent application was singled out and manipulated by the ISP using deep packet inspection technology. The chart shows the two-letter country code and the name of the network operator".

Among the the top 10 throttlers for the first quarter of 2012 are two Canadian operators, who said recently they will stop throttling P2P traffic on March 2012 - will we see them the next time?

• Bell Canada - see "Bell Canada will Stop Shape "diminishing" P2P Traffic on March 2012" - here 
• Rogers - see "Rogers Stops DPI/Traffic Management" - here.

See " The world’s top bittorrent manipulators" - here.

NSF Funds Research on DPI

 

The Internet Governance Project website reports that "Syracuse University Professor Milton Mueller was awarded $304,000 by the U.S. NSF for his research on “Deep Packet Inspection and the Governance of the Internet" The research will take place over two academic years, 2010-11 and 2011-2012"

See "U.S. National Science Foundation funds research on social impact of network surveillance technologies" - here.

"The project will contribute to an understanding of how new technological capabilities interact with politics, public policy, regulation, and law. Drawing on research literatures in science, technology and society studies (STS), Internet governance studies and political science, it will test and improve theories about the co-production of technology and governance institutions, especially theories which assign agency to technological artifacts .. Mueller’s research will investigate whether the use of DPI by Internet service providers is producing major changes in the way users and suppliers of Internet services are governed"

See a Mueller's previous work on DPI - here and a related post - "The Legality of DPI - Paper by Angela Daly" - here