IXPN, Others Target Better Experience with M-Lab Network

Measurement Lab (M-Lab), a network diagnostic tool launched by the Internet eXchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN) through the support of Google and Glo 1, would empower both the network subscribers and the operators to make informed decisions, according to promoters.

M-Lab is to data bundle users what mobile number portability (MNP), launched by the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) about two years ago is for voice subscribers (and data users too).

Muhammed Rudman, managing director and chief executive officer, IXPN,  said that M-Lab as a win-win solution that will help in determining issues around network quality (of service) and will be utilized by operators to make right investment decisions, determine areas of focus on service delivery and harness subscribers’ assessment through raw data presented from the lab.

Essentially, M-Lab tool is designed for subscribers to diagnose data bundles or packages provisioned by network operators, assessing the network in three key areas to help whether decide to ditch the network or stay put.

Part of the reasons that informed establishment of the lab, Rudman explained, was the fact that it can be very difficult for professional network administrators, let alone average Internet users, to answer all sort of questions when an Internet application doesn’t work as expected, because, “how can you tell whether the problem is caused by your connection, the application or something else?”

Mrs. Juliet Ehimuan-Chiazor Google (Nigeria’s) country manager, said that, apart from enhancing internet transparency, the lab will help sustain a healthy, innovative internet space, it provides researchers with global testing capacity.

She noted that usefulness of the diagnostic tool will see regulators generate data about regional network health too.

With minimal cost, M-Lab provides hundreds of servers running twelve network experiments, enabling 927Terabytes of publicly accessible data on 100% open source.

During a demo of the application, Collins Ndukwe, NetDeploy Regional Program Manager, Africa Access Google, said M-Lab measures download throughput; upload throughput; latency; packet retransmission rate; minimum round trip time and average round trip time.

M-Lab, he said, collects data via opt-in crowdsourcing using desktop applications; mobile apps and embedded 3rd party apps.

Both M-Lab and MNP impact both mobile operators and customers’ confidence on either the network or investments.

MNP’s importance for telecoms markets was called by need to remove a bar to switching that keeps disgruntled subscribers prisoners to a particular network or compel them to patronize many networks.

Differentially and unlike M-Lab, MNP does not accord users the opportunity to assess a network, technically.