text: ARDA 1.0: A pulse meter for Africa's peering and interconnection landscape – Internet Society
  ARDA 1.0: A pulse meter for Africa's peering and interconnection landscape
  Do you want to understand more about how the Internet is connected in Africa? Today we are pleased to announce the African Route-collectors Data Analyzer (ARDA) system. This new systems aims to present data collected at African IXPs in ways that can be easily extrapolated into practical business, policy, developmental, technical, or research opportunities for everyone involved in the peering and interconnection ecosystem.
  ARDA was inspired by the lack of progressive, visual, and near real-time data on the status of networks in Africa, from an African internal vantage point. In addition, having easily accessible information that could progressively pinpoint challenges and opportunities, over time, was necessary to monitor progress and gaps. As a colleague once eloquently put it, we need additional information to know how to re-engineer a plane in mid flight.
  We would like to recognize the contributions and support of IMDEA Networks Institute, UC3M, PCH, Af-IX, AfriNIC, TIX, UIXP, and INX-ZA for their invaluable assistance in the development of this tool. We also want to specifically recognize Rodérick Fanou (IMDEA Networks Institute and UC3M) and Victor Sánchez-Agüero (IMDEA Networks Institute and UC3M) who were the lead developers of ARDA under the supervision of Francisco Valera(UC3M). There are many others who have made significant contributions to the project. Lastly, we thank the Internet Society and their staff for their support and contribution.
  Conclusion and Invitation!
  It is our hope that ARDA will not only validate our intuitions, but also expose hidden opportunities across the entire continent.
  We hereby invite you to review the ARDA 1.0 tool and provide us with any feedback that you may have. As this represents the initial release of the system, any suggestions to improve, fix, or resolve any inconsistent data would be appreciated.
  We are also looking for suggestions on other matrixes that could be derived from the data for your benefit.
  Lastly, networks participating at IXPs in Africa are encouraged to peer with the existing route-collectors at their local IXP in order to improve ARDA's accuracy. ARDA is designed to easily add in and automatically process data from new route-collectors.
  Please email any views, suggestions, or bugs to us at arda@inv.it.uc3m.es
  VISIT ARDA WEBSITE
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