[Paper Review] A Multi-Perspective Study of Internet Performance during the COVID-19 Outbreak

Ahmed Elmokashfi, Alfred Arouna+6 more|Research Repository (University of Gloucestershire)|Jan 13, 2021

Internet Traffic Analysis and Secure E-voting15 references4 citations

TL;DR

This multi-perspective study analyzes Internet performance during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic using BGP data, global latency measurements, DNS stability checks, mobile network probes, and video conferencing traffic logs. It finds that while network performance degraded in access networks—with increased latency and reduced mobile speeds—overall Internet infrastructure coped reasonably well due to robust design and adaptive engineering responses.

ABSTRACT

The rapid spread of the novel corona virus, SARS-CoV-2, has prompted an unprecedented response from governments across the world. A third of the world population have been placed in varying degrees of lockdown, and the Internet has become the primary medium for conducting most businesses and schooling activities. This paper aims to provide a multi-prospective account of Internet performance during the first wave of the pandemic. We investigate the performance of the Internet control plane and data plane from a number of globally spread vantage points. We also look closer at two case studies. First, we look at growth in video traffic during the pandemic, using traffic logs from a global video conferencing provider. Second, we leverage a country-wide deployment of measurement probes to assess the performance of mobile networks during the outbreak. We find that the lockdown has visibly impacted almost all aspects of Internet performance. Access networks have experienced an increase in peak and off-peak end to end latency. Mobile networks exhibit significant changes in download speed, while certain types of video traffic has increased by an order of magnitude. Despite these changes, the Internet seems to have coped reasonably well with the lockdown traffic.

Motivation & Objective

• To provide a comprehensive, multi-perspective assessment of Internet performance during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• To investigate the impact of lockdown measures on the control plane (BGP routing), data plane (latency), and critical services (DNS).
• To analyze changes in video traffic growth using real-world logs from a global video conferencing provider.
• To evaluate mobile network performance using a country-wide probe deployment in a Western European nation.
• To assess the resilience of global Internet infrastructure under unprecedented traffic surges caused by remote work and education.

Proposed method

• Collected BGP routing table dumps and update traces from the RouteViews Oregon-IX collector for January–April 2019 and 2020 to compare routing system dynamics.
• Utilized RIPE Atlas to measure end-to-end latency between thousands of global vantage points before and during lockdown.
• Analyzed DNS root server performance using monitoring data to assess stability during the pandemic.
• Leveraged traffic logs from a global video conferencing provider to quantify video traffic growth across regions.
• Deployed a nationwide measurement platform in a Western European country to collect mobile broadband performance data pre- and post-lockdown.
• Combined quantitative analysis of network metrics with qualitative insights from industry reports and prior studies to contextualize findings.

Experimental results

Research questions

• RQ1 How did the COVID-19 lockdown affect BGP routing dynamics and stability in the global Internet control plane?
• RQ2 What changes occurred in end-to-end latency and network performance across different geographic regions during the pandemic?
• RQ3 Did the performance of DNS root servers degrade during the pandemic, indicating potential instability?
• RQ4 To what extent did video conferencing traffic grow globally, and how did this vary across different customer segments?
• RQ5 How did mobile network performance change in residential versus urban areas during the lockdown, particularly in terms of data speeds and congestion?

Key findings

• The size of the default-free IPv4 routing table grew at a slower rate in 2020 (1.7%) compared to 2019 (3.2%), indicating reduced network growth during lockdown.
• BGP routing dynamics showed reduced transient changes and increased signs of traffic engineering, suggesting proactive network management during the pandemic.
• End-to-end latency increased in both peak and off-peak hours across most countries, with access networks showing the most visible degradation.
• Mobile networks in a Western European country experienced reduced data speeds in densely populated residential areas, while speeds improved in less populated regions due to reduced mobility.
• Video traffic from a global conferencing provider increased by more than tenfold for certain customers, with overall video traffic growth exceeding 1000% in some regions.
• Despite performance degradation in access networks, DNS root servers showed no measurable impact, indicating strong resilience of this critical Internet component.