Boris Nechaev, Vern Paxson, Mark Allman, Mike Bennett, Andrei Gurtov. Towards Methodical Calibration: A Case Study of Enterprise Switch Measurements. Technical Report 13-005, International Computer Science Institute, September 2013.
PDF | Project

Abstract:

In this work we discuss the general problem of how to undertake the thorough calibration of empirical data, by which we mean identifying (and ideally remedying) shortcomings and biases present in the data due to the process by which we collected it. We illustrate a methodology for proceeding with such calibration in the context of network trace measurements; in particular, traces captured from switches within an enterprise. We argue that such calibration fundamentally requires proceeding in a progressive fashion, building up an understanding of the data's quality first regarding basic properties and then onward to more complex properties. In addition, the procedure often has an iterative nature, where the investigation of these more complex properties can lead to revisiting earlier calibration steps in order to further refine them. While the methodology often proves labor-intensive, it arguably plays a vital role in establishing the ultimate soundness of any subsequent analysis based on the data.

BibTeX:

@techreport{NPA+13,
    author      =        "Boris Nechaev, Vern Paxson, Mark Allman, Mike Bennett, Andrei Gurtov",
    title       =        "{Towards Methodical Calibration: A Case Study of Enterprise Switch Measurements}",
    institution =        "International Computer Science Institute",
    year        =        2013,
    number      =        "13-005",
    month       =        sep,
}