Mobilyzer: An Open Platform for Controllable Mobile Network Measurements

Mobile Internet availability, performance and reliability have remained stubbornly opaque since the rise of cellular data access. Conducting network measurements can give us insight into userperceived network conditions, but doing so requires careful consideration of device state and efficient use of scarce resources. Existing approaches address these concerns in ad-hoc ways. In this work we propose Mobilyzer, a platform for conducting mobile network measurement experiments in a principled manner. Our system is designed around three key principles: network measurements from mobile devices require tightly controlled access to the network interface to provide isolation; these measurements can be performed efficiently using a global view of available device resources and experiments; and distributing the platform as a library to existing apps provides the incentives and low barrier to adoption necessary for large-scale deployments. We describe our current design and implementation, and...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2015
• Where: MOBISYS
• Authors: Ashkan Nikravesh, Hongyi Yao, Shichang Xu, David R. Choffnes, Zhuoqing Morley Mao
• Keywords: Computer Networks, MOBISYS 2015