Exploiting the IPID Field to Infer Network Path and End-System Characteristics

In both active and passive network Internet measurements, the IP packet has a number of important header fields that have played key roles in past measurement efforts, e.g., IP source/destination address, protocol, TTL, port, and sequence number/acknowledgment. The 16-bit identification field (IPID) has only recently been studied to determine what information it might yield for network measurement and performance characterization purposes. We explore several new uses of the IPID field, including how it can be used to infer: (a) the amount of internal (local) traffic generated by a server; (b) the number of servers in a large-scale, load-balanced server complex and; (c) the difference between one-way delays of two machines to a target computer. We illustrate and validate the use of these techniques through empirical measurement studies.