My solution, for the record:
https://gist.github.com/qm2k/ea5f67fcf4e3dd2208ab3bc4ee233560
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With Best Regards,
Marat Khalili
On 10/03/17 11:47, Marat Khalili wrote:
I'd like to check worldwide connectivity to my site. I create a new
measurement via web-interface and add, say, 300 probes, expecting them
to cover most world countries. However, looking at the map
<https://atlas.ripe.net/measurements/7861872/?filter=#map> I notice
that most are selected from Europe: there're two dozens in Netherlands
(many with same ASNs), but only two in Australia, one in Japan and
nothing in Brazil. Obviously, most ATLAS probes are from Europe, and
selection algorithm does not take probe density into account.
Wouldn't it be nice to have the following features in web-interface
and API:
* even distribution of probes by country or continent based on
population, area, and other user-defined weight numbers;
* avoiding probes with same ASNs
?
I don't know how current algorithm works, but easiest modification
would be two-step process: (1) randomly select country based on
specified weights; (2) randomly select probe within country, avoiding
earlier selected probes or ASNs and failing if none are left
available; repeat from step 1 until necessary number of probes is
selected.
P.S. I tried to manually request 1 probe from each country, but
stumbled on unrecognised country codes, countries with no probes etc.
before even trying population-weighted distribution. Without direct
access to probes database nice solution can be difficult to achieve
via current API, although crude one looks possible.
P.P.S. I understand this option will create more load on probes in
less-covered countries, but since it's possible to limit selection to
specific countries anyway this is hardly a strong argument against
adding this feature.
--
With Best Regards,
Marat Khalili
