Patent ID: 8339965

Claim:
A system implemented on a set of machines that uncovers difference in performance of Internet Service Provider (ISP) networks, the system comprising: a memory, wherein the memory is encoded with instructions; a processor, wherein the processor executes the instructions; a controller, wherein the controller: divides a measurement process into cycles and measures at least one Internet Service Provider (ISP) network per cycle; iterates through a list of target Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and determines a list of destination Internet Protocol (IP) addresses to interrogate; ascertains a complete scope of the target Internet Service Provider (ISP) networks, the complete scope includes hops between a beginning point and an end point in a measured path; determines an asymmetry between a forward and a reverse hop length of the measured path; discards measured paths for which the asymmetry differs by more than a predetermined threshold; eliminates redundant measured paths between the beginning point and the end point; propagates the list of destination Internet Protocol (IP) addresses to a set of probers that utilize the list of destination Internet Protocol (IP) addresses to obtain probing results, the probing results employed by the controller to provide a comparative performance of Internet Service Provider (ISP) networks; ensures that each prober of the set of probers has up-to-date configuration files based in part on: updating a list of destination IP addresses that have affirmatively requested not to be probed; and randomly selecting an IP address within a Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) atom at a fixed interval.