In the long run, as larger and larger amounts of bandwidth to the Internet become cheaper and cheaper, the costs of network delays become higher and higher. Consider the cost of 1 second of network delay. A 45 Megabit T3 connection will waste more potential bandwidth waiting for 1 second delay than will a 14.4 Kilobit connection. Protocols that do format and parameter negotiation are particularly vulnerable to network delays. When measuring packet loss, we need some targets to measure packet loss.
Landmarks are notable sites on the Internet.
There are landmarks from around the world to get a more complete picture of an ISP's connectivity. This way, Internet users or organizations can pick an Internet vendor optimized to their particular usage patterns. While this is true, no other metric or protocol feature works with generic landmarks picked by a consumer. Data from these runs could be used to identify problem periods and get a feel for general performance through an Internet vendor. Nearly real-time analysis and monitoring of ISP performance has been made possible.