Host distance measurement using ICMP protocol in IP networks

Current internet more and more often faces the problem of the right definition of distance between the single hosts. The knowledge of this quantity influences the areas of the optimal lay-out of overlay multicast networks, the right selection of peer-to-peer network participant, or the simple decision of the end user: which one of the nearest mirrors to use for downloading datas. The nearest one doesn't have to mean the nearest in geographical point of view - the distance on Internet is usually expressed by quantities as latency or bandwidth. All these examples have got the saving of bandwidth in common and therefore economical saving. The methods of host position prediction in networks work on the basis of measuring latency parameter. The tools for measuring of this parameter will be set up in this thesis and at the same time it will be shown how geographical distance and latency correspond with each other