UC Davis Researchers Join Internet Society Fellowship
The Internet Society has selected Alexander Gamero-Garrido, an assistant professor of computer science at the University of California, Davis, and Nishant Acharya, a Ph.D. student in Gamero-Garrido’s lab, for its Pulse Research Fellowship and Mentorship program.
The eight-month program supports researchers in conducting data-driven analysis or developing tools that contribute to an open, globally connected, secure and trustworthy internet. This third cohort of 10 fellows and an inaugural cohort of five mentors will work with Internet Society’s Pulse research team to develop their proposed research projects that support the society’s mission of improving understanding and analysis of the availability, evolution and resilience of the internet.
As a mentor, Gamero-Garrido views this program as an opportunity to not only extend his mentorship to a global community of researchers but also foster innovative solutions in internet measurement and resilience challenges.
“By sharing my expertise in internet technologies, data analysis and inclusive teaching, I aim to help mentees develop impactful research while championing equity and accessibility in the broader Internet ecosystem,” he said.
Acharya beat out the steep competition (about 5% of entered projects were selected) for the fellowship with his proposal regarding internet exchange points, or IXPs. IXPs are centralized hubs where multiple networks, including internet service providers, connect to exchange traffic directly, and are crucial for optimizing network performance and improving internet speed.
Disruptions to IXPs that may be caused by extreme weather events or internet shutdowns can severely affect the quality of service for the end user, Acharya observes. Thus, identifying the IXPs that can cause the greatest impact on the quality of service and quantifying the impact of a disruption is crucial for the proper personnel to deal with them effectively.
To do this, Acharya proposes to develop and validate a metric to identify the impact of an IXP’s shutdown on the end user. He will use passive and active data from multiple sources, including geolocation databases and the Center for Applied Internet Data Analysis dataset, and apply the metric on IXPs in regions with previous shutdowns to compare the drop in the time it takes for a network request to travel from a starting point to the destination and back.
Acharya hopes the findings can inform policy decisions for more robust and equitable access to the internet.
“This fellowship provides me the opportunity to work on high-impact research that will contribute to making internet interconnections more secure and open,” he said. “I’m extremely excited about this mentorship opportunity.”
