ReFlow: Reports on Internet Flow Data

Network traffic statistics from operators can provide a good overview on world-wide network usage. In the past, Internet2 provided statistics of traffic transferred in one of their networks. These statistics have been a valuable source of information for researchers and operators. However, Internet2 discontinued this project in April 2010 and, to the best of our knowledge, there is no other project of this kind nowadays. The goal of this work is to create a new system, called ReFlow, to fill in this information gap. In this paper we describe all modules of this new system. The types of statistics on network traffic that the system provides are detailed. We explain how the system computes the statistics out of flow-level traffic measurements provided by operators and universities. We also discuss the issues on ethical and privacy concerns regarding the sensitive nature of publishing network traffic information.