EECS Department
Northwestern University
Wednesday September 22, 2010, 1-2PM, CSB 477
Abstract:
A highly accurate client-independent geolocation service stands to be an
important goal for the Internet. Despite an extensive research effort
and significant advances in this area, this goal has not yet been met.
Motivated by the fact that the best results to date are achieved by
utilizing additional 'hints' beyond inherently inaccurate delay-based
measurements, we develop a novel geolocation method that fundamentally
escalates the use of external information. In particular, many entities
(e.g., businesses, universities,
institutions) host their Web services locally and provide their actual
geographical location on their Websites.
We demonstrate that the information provided in this way, when combined
with network measurements,
represents a precious geolocation resource. Our methodology
automatically extracts, verifies, utilizes, and opportunistically
inflates such Web-based information to achieve high accuracy. Moreover,
it overcomes many of
the fundamental inaccuracies encountered in the use of absolute delay
measurements. Our system can geolocate IP addresses with a median error
distance of 690 meters, which is 50 times better than the best
previously reported result.
Speaker Biography: Aleksandar Kuzmanovic is an Associate Professor in the EECS Department at Northwestern University, and a Lisa Wissner-Slivka and Benjamin Slivka Chair in Computer Science. His research interests are in the area of computer networking with emphasis on design, measurements, analysis, denial-of-service resiliency, and prototype implementation of protocols and algorithms for the Internet. He joined the Northwestern faculty in 2005 after receiving a Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from Rice University, under the direction of Prof. Ed Knightly. He received the NSF CAREER award in 2008.