On the network geography of the Internet

Abstract—The geographic layout of the physical Internet inherently determines important network properties and traffic characteristics. To give insight into the geography of the Internet, we examine the spatial properties of the topology and routing. To represent the network we conducted a geographically dispersed traceroute campaign, and embedded the extracted topology into the geographic space by applying a novel IP geolocalization service, called Spotter. In this paper we present the frequency analysis of link lengths, quantify path circuitousness and explore the symmetry of end-to-end Internet routes. I

From baseworld to droneworld

Our planet is garrisoned by a network of around 1,100 bases operated by the U.S. military. Many of these sites exist in shadow because they are used for paramilitary operations by Special Forces and the CIA. These bases range in size and location, but a recent and favoured strategy of the U.S. military has been to construct skeletal “lily pads” that are scattered in remote outposts across the globe. Chalmers Johnson, author of the book Blowback, wrote back in 2004 that “[t]his vast network of American bases on every continent except Antarctica actually constitutes a new form of empire – an empire of bases with its own geography not likely to be taught in any high school geography class”. Of course, neither would the cost of maintaining this “Baseworld” make it to print: billions and billions of dollars spent on everything from air conditioning to internet cafes. While this Baseworld – which counts Guantanamo Bay as the jewel in its crown – is hardly new, the proliferation of remotely piloted aircraft certainly is. Everywhere and nowhere, drones have become sovereign tools of life and death, and are coming to a sky near you

Geographical Information System Mapping the Billboards in Samarinda

Advances in information technology on geography are increasingly needed by many people, for example information on distances between regions, locations, facilities and many other information. The information is needed by users for various purposes such as research, development, regional design and natural resource management. Because of this geographical presence can help the presentation of a more interactive information, where users can access complete geographical information using only a computer, web-browser and internet network. So to get that information all in need of a Geographical Information System (GIS). The purpose of this research is to create a web that contains information on the location of billboards in the city of Samarinda. While this research is expected to make it easier for users to obtain information on the location of billboards in Samarinda

Mapping cyberspace: visualising, analysing and exploring virtual worlds

In the past years, with the development of computer networks such as the Internet and world wide web (WWW), cyberspace has been increasingly studied by researchers in various disciplines such as computer sciences, sociology, geography, and cartography as well. Cyberspace is mainly rooted in two computer technologies: network and virtual reality. Cybermaps, as special maps for cyberspace, have been used as a tool for understanding various aspects of cyberspace. As recognised, cyberspace as a virtual space can be distinguished from the earth we live on in many ways. Because of these distinctions, mapping it implies a big challenge for cartographers with their long tradition of mapping things in clear ways. This paper, by comparing it to traditional maps, addresses various cybermap issues such as visualising, analysing and exploring cyberspace from different aspects

Spiritualising the Internet. Uncovering Discourses and Narratives of Religious Internet Usage

Heidi Campbell deals with an important aspect of ”lived religion” and the Internet. In her contribution Spiritualising the Internet: Uncovering Discourses and Narratives of Religious Internet Usage, she focuses on how spiritual or religious worldviews shape the use and study of the Internet. Individuals and groups typically employ one of a range of conceptual models (such as the Internet as an information tool, identity workshop, common mental geography, social network or spiritual space) to frame their understanding of Internet technology and how it should be used. Narratives about the nature of this technology are often embedded within these discourses. Of particular interest to Campbell is the identification of narratives used to shape religious or spiritual Internet usage. Some of these can be described as offering a religious identity, support network, spiritual network or worship space. According to Campbell, religious narratives describe the religious group’s motivations and beliefs about acceptable use of technology in spiritual pursuits. They also highlight a process of negotiation and framing that is often undertaken in order to justify religious Internet usage. Campbell introduces Katz and Aakhus’s Apparageist theory of the social use of mobile technology, which provides one way to discuss this religious apologetic process related to the Internet. She is convinced that it also helps to uncover how technological selection can be linked to the spiritual worldviews to which individuals and/or groups ascribe

Internet Geography: New Spaces of Information

The objective of great investments in telecommunication networks is to approach economies and put an end to the asymmetries. The most isolated regions could be the beneficiaries of this new technological investments wave disseminating trough the territories. The new economic scenarios created by globalisation make high capacity backbones and coherent information society polity, two instruments that could change regions fate and launch them in to an economic development context. Technology could bring international projection to services or products and could be the differentiating element between a national and an international economic strategy. So, the networks and its fluxes are becoming two of the most important variables to the economies. Measuring and representing this new informational accessibility, mapping new communities, finding new patterns and localisation models, could be today’s challenge. In the physical and real space, location is defined by two or three geographical co-ordinates. In the network virtual space or in cyberspace, geography seems incapable to define location, because it doesn’t have a good model. Trying to solve the problem and based on geographical theories and concepts, new fields of study came to light. The Internet Geography, Cybergeography or Geography of Cyberspace are only three examples. In this paper and using Internet Geography and informational cartography, it was possible to observe and analyse the spacialisation of the Internet phenomenon trough the distribution of the IP addresses in the Portuguese territory. This work shows the great potential and applicability of this indicator to Internet dissemination and regional development studies. The Portuguese territory is seen in a completely new form: the IP address distribution of Country Code Top Level Domains (.pt) could show new regional hierarchies. The spatial concentration or dispersion of top level domains seems to be a good instrument to reflect the info-structural dynamic and economic development of a territory, especially at regional level

Cloud Watching: Understanding Attacks Against Cloud-Hosted Services

Cloud computing has dramatically changed service deployment patterns. In this work, we analyze how attackers identify and target cloud services in contrast to traditional enterprise networks and network telescopes. Using a diverse set of cloud honeypots in 5~providers and 23~countries as well as 2~educational networks and 1~network telescope, we analyze how IP address assignment, geography, network, and service-port selection, influence what services are targeted in the cloud. We find that scanners that target cloud compute are selective: they avoid scanning networks without legitimate services and they discriminate between geographic regions. Further, attackers mine Internet-service search engines to find exploitable services and, in some cases, they avoid targeting IANA-assigned protocols, causing researchers to misclassify at least 15\% of traffic on select ports. Based on our results, we derive recommendations for researchers and operators.Comment: Proceedings of the 2023 ACM Internet Measurement Conference (IMC '23), October 24--26, 2023, Montreal, QC, Canad

Mapping the UK Webspace: Fifteen Years of British Universities on the Web

This paper maps the national UK web presence on the basis of an analysis of the .uk domain from 1996 to 2010. It reviews previous attempts to use web archives to understand national web domains and describes the dataset. Next, it presents an analysis of the .uk domain, including the overall number of links in the archive and changes in the link density of different second-level domains over time. We then explore changes over time within a particular second-level domain, the academic subdomain .ac.uk, and compare linking practices with variables, including institutional affiliation, league table ranking, and geographic location. We do not detect institutional affiliation affecting linking practices and find only partial evidence of league table ranking affecting network centrality, but find a clear inverse relationship between the density of links and the geographical distance between universities. This echoes prior findings regarding offline academic activity, which allows us to argue that real-world factors like geography continue to shape academic relationships even in the Internet age. We conclude with directions for future uses of web archive resources in this emerging area of research.Comment: To appear in the proceeding of WebSci 201

Global cities: Global parks: Globalizing of digital leisure networks.

This paper proposes to understand the globalizing of online Social Network Sites (SNS) through the spatial metaphor of global parks. It builds upon a commonly accepted ideation of the city as socially-constructed and that which has been harnessed to understand the spatiality of the Internet. Over the decades we have learnt to conceptualize the Internet with the aid of metaphors, including that of the city to grasp its intricate information highways, networks and connectivity, the underlying logic that dictates movement within these spaces and nodes of concentrated social action. By equating the Internet to the city, we are compelled to extend our imagination by applying our understandings of urban planning and geography to current vital conversations on the shaping of Internet spaces. The persistence of this parallel has matured our thinking significantly from the utopic notion of the web as a frontier of limitless and depoliticized space to a more architected and socio-economic phenomenon of a propertied and contextual digital place. Given that the city has been a useful analogy for the Internet to confront its directionality and political intent in design and usage, this paper takes this parallel further, delving into a segment of the Internet that is currently in the midst of tremendous speculation- that of Social Network Sites (SNS) and its seemingly open, democratic, social and inclusive nature. If we narrow our attention to a domain of the city that is imbued with a similar rhetoric of being open, social and leisurely