On the Centralization and Regionalization of the Web

TL;DR

This paper introduces a statistical measure to quantify Internet centralization across various infrastructure layers and regions, revealing significant geographical variation and regionalization effects.

Contribution

It provides the first formal metric for Internet centralization and applies it to analyze global infrastructure, uncovering regionalization patterns.

Findings

Significant geographical variation in centralization

Complex interplay between centralization and regionalization

Foundation for nuanced analysis of Internet structure

Abstract

Over the past decade, Internet centralization and its implications for both people and the resilience of the Internet has become a topic of active debate. While the networking community informally agrees on the definition of centralization, we lack a formal metric for quantifying centralization, which limits research beyond descriptive analysis. In this work, we introduce a statistical measure for Internet centralization, which we use to better understand how the web is centralized across four layers of web infrastructure (hosting providers, DNS infrastructure, TLDs, and certificate authorities) in 150~countries. Our work uncovers significant geographical variation, as well as a complex interplay between centralization and sociopolitically driven regionalization. We hope that our work can serve as the foundation for more nuanced analysis to inform this important debate.