rePurpose: A Case for Versatile Network Measurement

Network throughput tests, commonly known as “speed tests” are widely used by consumers, regulators, and ISPs to measure and diagnose network performance. However, the tools used to conduct these tests are often costly in terms of data consumption. Moreover, the speed tests rely on data that is transferred to clients for the sole purpose of measuring throughput with the data being discarded and serving no other purpose. In this paper, we present rePurpose, a system that moves useful content (ads) to enable periodic speed tests by significantly offsetting the cost of network measurement, thereby avoiding harming user QoE. rePurpose can work within the existing ad ecosystem to pre-stage ads needed by users ahead of time. We evaluate the efficacy of rePurpose by emulating a common scenario where users watch videos and ads. Our evaluation shows that rePurpose can reduce the data cost of periodic speed tests by up to 90%. Moreover, by virtue of the time-shifted delivery courtesy of the periodic speed tests moving useful data, rePurpose improves video and ad QoE by reducing or eliminating start-up delay by up to five seconds.