The TUD’s RISE project aims to establish the technical, organizational, and legal conditions necessary to sustainably preserve two valuable datasets essential for understanding the Internet and to increase their availability: “The Internet is a critical infrastructure. Its stability and security influence nearly all social and technical systems,” says Prof. Matthias Wählisch, holder of the Chair of Distributed and Networked Systems at the TUD’s School of Computer Science. “With RISE, we aim to preserve unique measurement data that is indispensable for understanding today’s Internet and for developing the resilient infrastructures of tomorrow.”
The relevant datasets document the development and state of the Internet over a period of more than 20 years. They thus form an important foundation for understanding the global dynamics, security threats, and further development of the most important communications infrastructure of our time. Due to their scope and temporal completeness, the datasets are of outstanding importance and will continue to play a key role in the future—for example, in assessing Internet threats, developing technical standards, and shaping policy measures for digital security. To ensure their preservation and scientific analysis, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMFTR) and the German Research Foundation (DFG) are funding the project with 1.8 million euros.
“This funding enables the establishment of additional storage capacity of more than 40 petabytes at the Center for Information Services and High-Performance Computing at TU Dresden, which is necessary for the long-term preservation of Internet measurement data,” emphasizes Wählisch. “With RISE, we are ensuring the long-term availability of scientific data for transparent and reproducible Internet research. This approach and the funding once again underscore the importance of our research at TUD.” To achieve a storage capacity of 40 petabytes, one would need 40,000 laptops, each with a one-terabyte hard drive.
Unique Datasets for Understanding the Development and Functioning of the Internet
The UCSD-NT is the largest network telescope for Internet research. Unlike astronomical telescopes, it observes a portion of Internet traffic. The Center for Applied Internet Data Analysis (CAIDA) at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) on the University of California campus operates the telescope and has been continuously collecting this data since 2003. The dataset enables researchers to observe relevant changes on the Internet, including Internet outages, the spread of malware, new security threats, and the introduction of new Internet protocols. The collection covers Internet traffic to more than 16 million Internet addresses. In terms of its coverage and temporal continuity, this dataset is thus one of the most important sources for Internet research worldwide.
SecSpider collects all the key data necessary to secure the Domain Name System (DNS). The DNS, with the DNSSEC extension, translates domain names (e.g., www.tu-dresden.de) into Internet addresses (e.g., 141.76.14.10), enabling Internet services to be used easily and securely. SecSpider makes it possible to study the security and reliability of DNS and DNSSEC over long periods of time. The dataset contains security-related data, such as cryptographic keys and signatures, from approximately 15.4 million domains. It helps researchers, for example, understand how security mechanisms are implemented in practice and how they can be further improved. This includes, among other things, the exchange of cryptographic keys and the introduction of new security standards.
Long-term availability of scientific data for traceable and reproducible Internet research
The datasets are to be made accessible for research purposes via a European infrastructure that is networked with national data services of the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) and European offerings within the framework of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC).
Contact
Prof. Matthias Wählisch
Chair of Distributed and Networked Systems
Faculty of Computer Science at TUD
+49 351 463-38261
matthias.waehlisch@tu-dresden.de
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Further Links
👉 https://tu-dresden.de
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