Towards geographical analysis of the autonomous system network
Uri Yacobi Keller, Evgeny Savin, Benjamin Fabian, Tatiana Ermakova · International Journal of Networking and Virtual Organisations · 2019
The internet is an important global critical infrastructure. Yet, it has remained unclear how it is organised in different regions and areas of political influence. This explorative study analyses geographic aspects of the autonomous system networks in different countries. By using Internet geolocation information for locating autonomous systems, we demonstrate the feasibility of discovering physical regions, rather than purely topological clusters, in a graph representing the backbone network of autonomous systems. We further explore the characteristics of these central regions across different countries. We identify and discuss a general pattern in the surveyed countries, but also some important exceptions. Our study can serve as a starting point for investigating potential geographical and political points of control.