Spatial Structure of the Internet Traffic

TL;DR

This paper investigates the spatial structure of Internet traffic using data from the French Renater network, revealing localized traffic patterns and the influence of scientific activity on regional Internet usage.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of the spatial and social factors influencing Internet traffic patterns and their correlation with scientific activity.

Findings

Internet traffic is highly localized around active centers and information databases.

Regional Internet activity correlates positively with the number of scientific publications.

The study highlights the impact of human and social factors on Internet traffic distribution.

Abstract

The Internet infrastructure is not virtual: its distribution is dictated by social, geographical, economical, or political constraints. However, the infrastructure's design does not determine entirely the information traffic and different sources of complexity such as the intrinsic heterogeneity of the network or human practices have to be taken into account. In order to manage the Internet expansion, plan new connections or optimize the existing ones, it is thus critical to understand correlations between emergent global statistical patterns of Internet activity and human factors. We analyze data from the French national `Renater' network which has about two millions users and which consists in about 30 interconnected routers located in different regions of France and we report the following results. The Internet flow is strongly localized: most of the traffic takes place on a `spanning' network connecting a small number of routers which can be classified either as `active centers' looking for information or `databases' providing information. We also show that the Internet activity of a region increases with the number of published papers by laboratories of that region, demonstrating the positive impact of the Web on scientific activity and illustrating quantitatively the adage `the more you read, the more you write'.