Dustin Loup returned from family leave to lead the April National Broadband Mapping Coalition monthly call, which took place on April 24, 2024. Dustin opened the call by observing that Coalition calls to date have focused primarily on mapping issues. Acknowledging the need to also consider the measurement of broadband service availability and performance, he introduced Lai Yi Ohlsen of M-Lab.
Lai Yi began her presentation by providing background on M-Lab, which is best known for its Network Diagnostic Tool (NDT) speed test, which measures the bulk capacity of a single TCP stream. Over the past fifteen years, results from about 6 billion of tests have been collected and made available for analysis by M-Lab. She described how M-Lab’s platform and their approach to measurements have evolved to include their Measurement Swiss Army Knife, which allows a user to choose the congestion control algorithm (CUBIC or BRR), number of streams, and number of bytes sent to create a configurable version of NDT.
With a goal of creating a standardized approach to measuring Internet quality, Lai Yi observed the need to consider other quality of service aspects beyond speed. She remarked on how M-Lab has become involved in the BEAD challenge process with some states requiring M-Lab measurements for challenges. In addition to using it in the challenge process, there is also a need for measurement to assess compliance.
Concluding her presentation, Lai Yi invited questions from others on the call. In answer to a question on taking measurements down to a more granular level, Lai Yi replied that M-Lab only collects IP addresses, leaving it to others to associate an IP address with a physical location. After Bryan Darr of Ookla commented on differences in testing methodologies, Lai Yi and Brian concurred on the value of aggregating results from several sources to best address a given use case.
A discussion on user self-testing followed, with Alexis Schubbe and Peter Silverman both commenting on its limitations. Alexis described some of the challenges users face, while Peter observed that tester self-selection does not ensure a uniform and reliable data set. Lai Yi agreed that crowdsourcing may yield large data sets, but the data quality may be questionable. Bryan concurred, pointing out that users often self-test only when they’re having problems. He went on to describe an API Ookla has developed to enrich a test with additional information about the test environment such as how the user connects to the network and their subscriber plan.
Dustin closed the Q&A by advocating for better metrics to inform broadband infrastructure investments. He then introduced Barry Sullivan of the Marconi Society to present the Digital Inclusion Training Program. Developed in partnership with Arizona State University for ASU’s Digital Inclusion Leadership Certificate, the content is now being offered as an online training program to equip leaders from government, service providers, anchor institutions and other nonprofits with skills for closing the digital divide. A 10% discount is available to members of the National Broadband Mapping Coalition. More information is available at training.marconisociety.org, as well as a link to enroll.
A recording of the call is available to Coalition members on request (info@marconisociety.org). The National Broadband Mapping Coalition monthly call series will continue with the next call scheduled for Wednesday, May 22.
