Peeking Behind the NAT: An Empirical Study of Home Networks

We present the first empirical study of home network availability, infrastructure, and usage, using data collected from home networks around the world. In each home, we deploy a router with cus-tom firmware to collect information about the availability of home broadband network connectivity, the home network infrastructure (including the wireless connectivity in each home network and the number of devices connected to the network), and how people in each home network use the network. Downtime is more frequent and longer in developing countries—sometimes due to the network, and in other cases because users simply turn off their home router. We also find that some portions of the wireless spectrum are ex-tremely crowded, that diurnal patterns are more pronounced during the week, and that most traffic in home networks is exchanged over a few connections to a small number of domains. Our study is both a preliminary view into many home networks and an illustration of how measurements from a home router can yield significant infor-mation about home networks