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- 1.1 What does OPTE stand for?
- 1.2 How the heck do you map the Internet in one day!?
- 1.3 So if you can scan the Internet on one server with a high-speed connection, why make it distributed?
- 1.4 How can I help the project?
- 1.5 How often do you plan on releasing maps?
- 1.6 Why is there no code released yet?
- 1.7 What programs / code is Opte currently using?
- 1.8 Why is most of the code written in PHP?
1.1 What does OPTE stand for?
| Opte (pronounced op-te) originated from the Latin word Opti, meaning Optical. The name originated from the project creator Barrett Lyon and the fluidness of the name opte.org made it stick. |
1.2 How the heck do you map the Internet in one day!
| Opte uses a unique idea: Instead of mapping every single IP address on the Internet (theoretical maximum of 2^32=4,294,967,296 hosts) we simply traceroute to each class C network. The "traceroute" is a method to see how the operating Internet looks node-to-node. It's more of a functional view than looking at how networks advertise over an ASN. This also reduces the theoretical maximum to 16,777,216 hosts. On top of that, you can remove the Arin Reserved network addresses, which include about 47 class A networks. This again reduces the theoretical list to around 13,697,024 blocks. This processing is then placed into the Opte MySQL database where it is then later converted into LGL formatted code. |
1.3 So if you can scan the Internet on one server with a high-speed connection, why make it distributed?
| After it was proven that it is possible to scan the entire Internet with a single machine, we moved to a more detailed scanning method. The Internet is a unique place where packets may be routed in different ways depending on where you are at on the Internet. It is important to scan the Internet from many points of view. This is the reason for the "distributed" model of scanning. Prolexic's advanced network provides route views from over carrier networks from both the US and EU. |
1.4 How can I help the project?
| Please buy a t-shirt or email blyon@opte.org. |
1.5 How often do you plan on releasing maps?
| We plan to release newly generated maps every so often. This is an open project so it's not really operating on anyone's schedule. |
1.6 Why is there no code released yet?
| The code is released! Check it out off the download page. |
1.7 What programs / code is Opte currently using?
| We are still in alpha mode and as we find faster and better applications, our programs and code may change. Currently the code is written in PHP(http://www.php.net). The database is MySQL (http://www.mysql.com) The trace route program is a custom version of the Paketto Keiretsu tools ( http://www.doxpara.com/paketto/). The visualization software is utilizing Large Graph Layout (LGL) (http://bioinformatics.icmb.utexas.edu/lgl/). |
1.8 Why is most of the code written in PHP?
| PHP is used in this project because it is a good "proof of concept" language. As the project's need for speed grows, our programming languages may switch to Perl, C++, or something more optimized. Currently PHP is proving that it can do the task, our major bottleneck is our memory for the database. |
