Measuring the Internet

The global Internet is comprised of independent networks that connect to one another. Its distributed nature makes measuring any aspect of the Internet on a global scale difficult. There are many people, projects, and organizations that are collecting data on various facets of the Internet, but there’s no single site that provides a curated set of insights.

To help address this gap, we’ve launched the Internet Society Pulse platform to help everyone gain deeper, data-driven insight into the Internet.

What We’re Doing

We’re collating data from several trusted organizations – our data partners – and will examine Internet trends, generate reports, and tell data-driven stories about how the Internet is evolving. Pulse is available to everyone, everywhere so that policymakers, researchers, journalists, network operators, civil society groups and others can better understand the health, availability, and evolution of the Internet.

This is the first iteration of Pulse and we plan to continuously refine, revise, and extend it based on feedback and input from the community.

Focus Areas

We’ve identified five focus areas for Pulse and launched the platform in 2020 with two of these:

Internet Shutdowns

The data we’ll present will help to establish a framework for measuring the frequency, duration, and network reach of Internet shutdowns, with accompanying analysis and reporting. We’ll also crowdsource first-hand accounts and insights from the local community to explore how the shutdown is affecting local populations.

Enabling Technologies

New technologies are essential to allow the Internet to keep growing and evolving to meet the changing expectations of users. We’ll identify these technologies, why they’re important for the future of the Internet and track their adoption across networks and countries. Technologies that contribute to improving Internet scalability, security, trust and availability will be our focus.

Work is continuing on three additional focus areas, which we aim to add to Pulse throughout 2021 and beyond:

Internet Resilience

A resilient Internet connection is one that maintains an acceptable level of service in the face of faults and challenges to normal operation. We’ll track resiliency metrics to help support the development of policies and infrastructure to improve Internet resilience at the local, regional and global level.

Internet Way of Networking (IWN)

To support and promote the IWN, we’ll track metrics and present data based on the IWN framework’s critical Internet properties to help inform policy and legislation. By tracking these metrics over time we hope to better understand the health of the Internet Way of Networking.

Keeping Traffic Local

Local content is key to improving the performance and resilience of the Internet. We’ll track metrics and present data to share how the levels of local traffic vary by country and region. By tracking these metrics over time we hope to better understand the impact of new IXP deployments, the diversity of Internet performance and contribute to the overall understanding of Internet resilience.

Visit Pulse

Our Work in 2020

Building a platform: We launched the Pulse platform on 2 December 2020 and are making continuous improvements.
Building partnerships: We established partnerships with organizations that are collecting and contributing Internet measurement data, and solicited feedback from community members who will use and share the insights that we’ll present.

Our Work in 2021

Developing Pulse: We’ll continue improving, revising and extending the platform based on feedback and input from the community.
Building partnerships: We’ll continue to establish partnerships with organizations to expand the data and other information presented on Pulse.
Produce data-driven stories and source first-hand experiences: We’ll examine Internet trends, generate reports, and tell data-driven stories about how the Internet is evolving. We’ll encourage our community to share accounts of how Internet Shutdowns, disruptions and other key Internet events affect their lives.
Adding additional focus areas: Our work on three additional focus areas – Internet Resilience, Internet Way of Networking (IWN) and Keeping Traffic Local – will continue We’ll add related data and insights on these throughout the year.

Get Involved

Collecting Data?

Are you collecting Internet measurement data that could contribute to one or more of our focus areas?

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Use and Share

We encourage everyone to use and share the text, images, and charts presented on Pulse.

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Contribute to the Pulse Blog

Do you have an idea for a blog post that uses the data presented on Pulse?

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Find Out More about Pulse

Want to learn more about the platform and our work?

Visit the FAQs section

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