Cuba USA
I've been busy with teaching and a curriculum development project, and have neglected this blog. Sorry.
About a month ago, I tried a data gathering experiment. I created a simple survey on underground TV viewing in Cuba, hoping that Cubans would reply. Well, the experiment did not work -- a number of people started the survey, but only a couple completed and submitted it. I don't know if there was some sort of mistrust or they just had nothing to say.
I would still like to find ways of getting grass roots data on the Internet in Cuba from Cubans. For example, it would be interesting to get data on international network performance before and after the undersea cable is up and running. That could be done if people at different locations could run timing tests -- from simple pings and traceroutes to more elaborate tests like the Network Diagnostic Tool, which is available on many Internet servers (for example, this one at MIT).
In the mean time, here are a few ping tests run during the evening from the US to three Cuban servers:
If we assume that 250 or 300 milliseconds are due to satellite link latency, these times are still slow. At these speeds, low-bandwidth, asynchronous applications like email would be slow and something like browsing a modern Web site nearly impossible.
Running tests like these from within Cuba would require Web access with the ability to run Java applets. Would anyone be willing to run some tests?
- Has The Alba-1 Undersea Cable Changed Anything?
In January, I posted a note about a blog post by Renesys analyst Doug Madory showing that Cuba had begun testing the ALBA-1 undersea cable. Madory's data shows the round trip "ping" times for packets traveling between Cuba and four other cities. ...
- The Internet Route From Cuba To Google
The Internet is, as its name implies, a network of networks. A data packet is sent from a particular computer on one network across the Internet to the receiving computer on another network. As the packet moves from network to network, it goes through...
- Ping Time From Cuba To The Us
Ping is a simple utility program that comes with every Mac or Windows computer. Ping records the time it takes to send a data packet across the Internet and to receive an acknowledgement of receipt from the remote computer. A colleague in Cuba recently...
- A Conversation With A Cuban Telecommunication Engineer
I asked for input and test runs from people in Cuba in a recent post, and I've had an interesting email conversation with a telecommunication engineer who says he has never worked in that field. He asked me not to share his name or email address....
- Gathering Data From Within Cuba
I interviewed an anonymous Internet user for my report on the state of the Internet in Cuba. I was curious about control over access to information and services at various locations. He told me that domestic email and Web pages can be accessed from all...
Cuba USA
Network performance testing
About a month ago, I tried a data gathering experiment. I created a simple survey on underground TV viewing in Cuba, hoping that Cubans would reply. Well, the experiment did not work -- a number of people started the survey, but only a couple completed and submitted it. I don't know if there was some sort of mistrust or they just had nothing to say.
I would still like to find ways of getting grass roots data on the Internet in Cuba from Cubans. For example, it would be interesting to get data on international network performance before and after the undersea cable is up and running. That could be done if people at different locations could run timing tests -- from simple pings and traceroutes to more elaborate tests like the Network Diagnostic Tool, which is available on many Internet servers (for example, this one at MIT).
In the mean time, here are a few ping tests run during the evening from the US to three Cuban servers:
| Mean | Minimum | Maximum | St. dev. | |
| www.jovenclub.cu | 634 | 632 | 642 | 2.2 |
| osri.gov.cu | 856 | 707 | 995 | 89.9 |
| scu.sld.cu | 667 | 638 | 885 | 59.9 |
If we assume that 250 or 300 milliseconds are due to satellite link latency, these times are still slow. At these speeds, low-bandwidth, asynchronous applications like email would be slow and something like browsing a modern Web site nearly impossible.
Running tests like these from within Cuba would require Web access with the ability to run Java applets. Would anyone be willing to run some tests?
- Has The Alba-1 Undersea Cable Changed Anything?
In January, I posted a note about a blog post by Renesys analyst Doug Madory showing that Cuba had begun testing the ALBA-1 undersea cable. Madory's data shows the round trip "ping" times for packets traveling between Cuba and four other cities. ...
- The Internet Route From Cuba To Google
The Internet is, as its name implies, a network of networks. A data packet is sent from a particular computer on one network across the Internet to the receiving computer on another network. As the packet moves from network to network, it goes through...
- Ping Time From Cuba To The Us
Ping is a simple utility program that comes with every Mac or Windows computer. Ping records the time it takes to send a data packet across the Internet and to receive an acknowledgement of receipt from the remote computer. A colleague in Cuba recently...
- A Conversation With A Cuban Telecommunication Engineer
I asked for input and test runs from people in Cuba in a recent post, and I've had an interesting email conversation with a telecommunication engineer who says he has never worked in that field. He asked me not to share his name or email address....
- Gathering Data From Within Cuba
I interviewed an anonymous Internet user for my report on the state of the Internet in Cuba. I was curious about control over access to information and services at various locations. He told me that domestic email and Web pages can be accessed from all...