FCC and M-Lab Collaboration
About M-Lab
The FCC's Consumer Broadband Test utilizes the Network Diagnostic Tool - an open-source tool created by Internet2 and hosted by Measurement Lab (M-Lab). M-Lab is an open, distributed server platform for researchers to deploy Internet measurement tools. M-Lab is a collaborative effort led by academic researchers in partnership with New America Foundation's Open Technology Initiative, the PlanetLab Consortium, Google Inc., and other supporting companies and institutions.
You can learn more about M-Lab here.
About NDT
Network Diagnostic Tool (NDT) provides a sophisticated speed and diagnostic test. An NDT test reports more than just the upload and download speeds -- it also attempts to determine what, if any, problems limited these speeds, differentiating between computer configuration and network infrastructure problems. It was written by Rich Carlson and volunteer contributors and is maintained by Internet2.
While the FCC's website only exposes a few of the metrics NDT collects (upload and download speed, latency and jitter), you can see the full functionality of the tool by running the test here.
For more information, also see NDT's website.
Common NDT Warnings and Errors
This section compiles a list of common NDT warnings and errors.
Java Security Warning for Tcpbw100: The application's digital signature has been verified. Do you want to run the application?
This warning is actually just a notice, letting users know that NDT uses a signed-Java client applet Tcpbw100. This applet is signed by the New America Foundation, whose Open Technology Initiative is a partner in Measurement Lab. The signed applet assures the user that what they are running is the code that was released by Measurement Lab, and not something else. This certificate guarantees the authenticity of the test, and is required by some NDT integrators. While some earlier versions of the Sun Java Runtime Environment will not display the notice when encountering NDT, the most up-to-date versions will. Users encountering a the above notice, letting them know that the app has been signed, should choose Run to allow NDT to run normally.
NDT message: Another client is currently being served, your test will begin within NNN seconds
To ensure accurate results, NDT servers are designed to handle a limited number of tests at once. During very busy times, NDT may queue a small number of newly arriving tests so that it can adequately serve tests that are already in progress.
Protocol error!
Protocol error! expected XXXX got YYYY instead
Error in parsing test results!
As part of testing, the NDT client server perform a scripted interaction. This message from the client indicates that, in the course of this interaction, the client received results, messages or conditions that were unexpected. Users receiving this message once should simply try again. If the condition persists, it may indicate a problem that NDT is unable to interpret. Anyone who gets this message repeatedly and reliably is encouraged to report the results to the NDT developers.
Server process not running: start web100srv process on remote server
NDT client needs to connect to port 3001 of the server. If an attempt to connect to that port is not answered or is otherwise refused, the above message is displayed. The message is a reminder to server operators to start the service. Other users receiving this message should consider whether they are behind a security firewall that is configured to block outbound TCP connections to port 3001 (this will not be the case for most residential users). If the condition persists, it may also be the case that the testing server is temporarily unavailable due to a network or server outag.
Server Busy: Too many clients waiting in server queue. Please try again later.
To avoid extremely long waits during very busy times, NDT will reject newly arriving tests if the queue grows too large. Those newly arriving tests will get the above message. Users receiving this message should try testing later.
About Data
By taking advantage of NDT the FCC is also helping to expand the amount of open broadband data available. All data collected through M-Lab is intended to be made publicly available and placed in the public domain. Note: Although the FCC is asking users to submit their address for internal purposes, the M-Lab site does not collect this information in our public information repository.
For more information on what data is collected visit our FAQ page.
Currently, data from NDT and NPAD are available, and other tools' datasets will become available in the future. You can access these datasets through Amazon's Public Data Sets, and we hope to make the data available in other ways as well. Data collected is being made publicly available on the Measurement Lab Data Repository under a “no rights reserved” Creative Commons license here.
