Quantifying the effects of circuitous routes on the latency of intra-africa internet traffic: A study of research and education networks

Abstract

Despite an increase in the number of Internet eXchange Points (IXP) in Africa, as well as proliferation of submarine and terrestrial fibre optic cable systems, the level of peering among Africa’s Internet service providers remains low. Using active network measurements, this work characterizes the level of interconnectivity and peering among Africa’s National Research and Education Networks (NRENs), and examines the performance of traffic exchange in terms of latencies. This paper shows that over 75% of Africa’s inter-university traffic follows circuitous inter-continental routes, and is characterised by latencies that are more than double those of traffic exchanged within the continent.