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Operated by MCI, vBNS publishes extensive backbone status information on the web. Four categories of information are available: performance measurements, router and switch statistics, short term and long term reports, and statistical analysis of data flows:

• The "performance" section provides data on round-trip-time measurements, throughput measurements, and daily performance summaries. These tests are run nightly between hosts, which are directly attached to the vBNS routers and switches. The results reflect the vBNS backbone conditions.
• The "snmp stats" section includes information on the number of bytes, cells, and packets being transmitted by the vBNS routers and switches. These data are collected via SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) from the network devices. Figure 4 below is an example of SNMP statistics for the NCSA Cisco router, which shows the aggregate NCSA vBNS traffic. From the figure, it is clear that the NCSA traffic was high during the daytime and low during the nighttime. So, to grab as much as bandwidth as possible, users should try to avoid the daytime, especially from 7 am to 4 pm.

  

  Figure 4. NCSA Cisco router traffic on July 8, 1999

• The "report" section provides human-friendly short term and long term reports on the overall vBNS deployment status.
• The "flows data" section provides access to flows data from OCxMon monitors deployed at key vBNS sites. OCxMon is a passive monitor attached to OC3 or OC12 fibers to collect and analysis the underlying data flows. Examples of the outcome include percentage of TCP traffic, percentage of FTP traffic, top traffic consumers, etc.

The vBNS web interface is being improved. More information will be added soon. So, check back to see what is new.