Platforms Comparison

This section compares nxthdr with other popular platforms for Internet measurements, such as CAIDA Ark, RIPE Atlas, NLNOG Ring, and M-Lab. The comparison focuses on key features, data access, measurement capabilities, and data retention policies to help you choose the right platform for your research needs.

Please note that information about other platforms is based on publicly available documentation and may not reflect the latest changes. Always refer to the official documentation of each platform for the most accurate and up-to-date information. Feel free to open an issue if you find any discrepancies or have questions.

User-Defined Measurements

Feature	CAIDA Ark	RIPE Atlas	NLNOG Ring	nxthdr
Probing restrictions & quotas	Limited to vetted researchers	Daily quotas, ~100k results/day	No enforced quotas	Daily quotas, 10k results/day
Supported tools & protocols	Scamper (ping, traceroute, HTTP, DNS)	Ping, traceroute, DNS, HTTP, NTP	Any Linux CLI tool	ICMP/UDP probes
Source cities/countries	~220/70	~1,000+/187	~300/60	2/2
Source ASes	~200	~4,000	~547	1
IPv4 / IPv6 support	Yes	Yes	Yes	Currently only IPv6 support
Anycast measurement support	No	No	No	Yes
BGP support	No	No	No	Yes

Datasets

Feature	CAIDA Ark	RIPE Atlas	M‑Lab	nxthdr
Data access & authentication	Public datasets; raw data requires request; by default with a delay	Public API; private data with auth	Public via BigQuery and GCP account	Full access without authentication
Data licensing	Academic, non-commercial use; under CAIDA terms	Open access under RIPE NCC terms	Public domain (CC0)	Public domain (PDDL)
Data retention	Long-term archives; curated datasets	Private data ~1 month; archives public	Indefinite retention; 24h publication delay	7 days

Recommendations

Choosing the right platforms depends on multiple factors. nxthdr is a great choice if you want to conduct measurements, but:

• you don’t have RIPE Atlas credits, access to CAIDA Ark infrastructure, or access to NLNOG Ring
• you need to conduct measurements with high flexibility and control, for instance to design and test new measurement tools
• your measurements methodology is compatible with the platforms limitations: IPv6-only, few probing locations, no TCP probes support and only one source AS
• you need anycast measurements support or you need to conduct measurements combined with BGP experiments

If you only need fresh or long-standing data from common tools such as ping, traceroute, DNS, HTTP, etc., and you agree on their terms of use, then RIPE Atlas is a great choice. It has a large number of probes from around the world and from many source ASes.

M-LAB is also a good choice if you need fresh or long-standing TCP and traceroute-like measurements data, notably from a lot of speedtest sources. Moreover, the data is available in the public domain.

Finally, if you are looking for curated datasets, CAIDA Ark is a great choice. It provides long-term archives of active measurements and BGP data, but requires you to apply for access and follow their terms of use.

Sources

• CAIDA Ark

  • https://www.caida.org/projects/ark/
  • https://www.caida.org/data/overview/
  • https://www.caida.org/about/legal/

• RIPE Atlas

  • https://atlas.ripe.net/
  • https://atlas.ripe.net/docs/api/
  • https://www.ripe.net/manage-ips-and-asns/community/active-measurements/ripe-atlas/data-access
  • https://www.ripe.net/legal/terms-conditions

• NLNOG Ring

  • https://ring.nlnog.net
  • https://ring.nlnog.net/documentation/
  • https://ring.nlnog.net/users/faq/

• M-Lab

  • https://www.measurementlab.net/data/
  • https://www.measurementlab.net/mlab-scope/
  • https://www.measurementlab.net/privacy/
  • https://www.measurementlab.net/tools/
  • https://console.cloud.google.com/marketplace/details/measurement-lab/ndt
  • https://github.com/m-lab

Comparison with PKTLAB

Content coming soon…

Comparison with PEERING

Content coming soon…