San Francisco (CA) - Google has developed new tools which attempt to identify which Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are "choking traffic" by moving certain data packets into "slow lanes" while allowing others to pass through at high speed.


Write Google's chief evangelist, Vint Cerf and Stephen Stuart, a principal engineer on the project, in an online post, "At Google, we care deeply about sustaining the Internet as an open platform for consumer choice and innovation. No matter your views on net neutrality and ISP network management practices, everyone can agree that Internet users deserve to be well-informed about what they're getting when they sign up for broadband."

The Measurement Lab (M-lab) software was made available yesterday. Google worked with New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute, the PlanetLab Consortium, to develop it. M-lab is designed specifically to detect Internet traffic manipulation by ISPs.

They continued, "When an Internet application doesn't work as expected or your connection seems flaky, how can you tell whether there is a problem caused by your broadband ISP, the application, your PC, or something else?"

From the press release:

"Today, M-Lab is at the beginning of its development. To start, three tools running on servers near Google's headquarters are available to help users attempt to diagnose common problems that might impair their broadband speed, as well as determine whether BitTorrent is being blocked or throttled by their ISPs. These tools were created by the individual researchers who helped found M-Lab. By running these tools, users will get information about their connection and provide researchers with valuable aggregate data. Like M-Lab itself these tools are still in development, and they will only support a limited number of simultaneous users at this initial stage."

See Google's press release.