NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Preliminary info regarding NNSquad Network Measurement Agent
Greetings. I've alluded previously to the upcoming initial beta release of an NNSquad software package. Here's a bit more info. The package is called the NNSquad Network Measurement Agent (NNMA). The first beta release is an installable Windows application, and the initial NNSquad-related function relates to detection of inserted RST packets. This function is very much experimental, and the importance of this package is less related to this particular test and much more to the availability of this software as a foundation for a growing family of NNSquad-related measurement, testing, reporting, and analysis processes. The reason why the software won't *look* much like a beta is that it is actually based on an existing professional software package with a large number of intrinsic abilities, which has very generously been made available to NNSquad and open-sourced by its authors in support of this project. Porting to conventional Linux platforms should be straightforward, though the primary effort right now is getting that last darn 1% of logistical and cosmetic elements finalized in the Windows version as quickly as possible given the available limited resources. I am frankly of two minds when it comes to the best manner for releasing this beta. One way would be just to make it available for open download -- the more people who test it, the more rapidly we'll get some sort of feel for the accuracy of the testing algorithms. On the other hand, a more limited "by request" initial distribution would probably be significantly easier to manage from an early operational standpoint. I'm definitely interested in suggestions regarding this matter. In the meantime, I just wanted to let you know what was coming down the line soon. Getting the package onto Linux will probably be the next key step after initial release of the Windows version, and then we can all work to grow the software and ultimately its supporting network measurement infrastructure from that point. Thanks as always. --Lauren-- NNSquad Moderator