Open Internet Measurement

M-Lab is an open source project with contributors from civil society organizations, educational institutions, and private sector companies dedicated to:

• Providing an open, verifiable measurement platform for global network performance
• Hosting the largest open Internet performance dataset on the planet
• Creating visualizations and tools to help people make sense of Internet performance

What is M-Lab’s mission?

M-Lab aims to advance Internet research by empowering consumers with useful information about their Internet performance. By providing free, open Internet measurement data, researchers, regulators, advocacy groups, and the general public can get a better sense of how the Internet is working, and how to maintain and improve it for the future.

Why Measurement Lab?

Real science requires verifiable processes, and M-Lab welcomes scientific collaboration and scrutiny. This is why all of the data collected by M-Lab’s global measurement platform is openly available, and all of the measurement tools hosted by M-Lab are open source. Anyone with the time and skill can review and improve the underlying methodologies and assumptions on which M-Lab’s platform, tools, and data rely. Transparency and review are key to good science, and good science is key to good measurement.

An Open Platform for Researchers

M-Lab assists scientific research by providing widely distributed servers and ample connectivity for researchers’ use. Each researcher-developed test is allocated dedicated resources on the M-Lab platform to facilitate accurate measurements. Server-side tools are openly licensed and operated, allowing third parties to develop their own client-side measurement software.

Better Open Data for Everyone

All data collected via M-Lab are made available to the public. M-Lab’s historical data archive provides a common pool of historical network measurement information that anyone may use, and is a data source enabling consumers, operators, regulators, researchers, and civil society to understand the state and quality of the Internet.