January 2026 | Here's what's happened in the last month.
Visualizing How the Internet Breathes
Data visualizations are among the most powerful tools network researchers and operators have for clearly and memorably conveying information about a network's performance.
While many researchers and network monitors gravitate to time series graphs and Cumulative Flow Diagrams to visualize performance and anomalies, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Columbia University, Boston University and NIKSUN Inc. have taken a different approach. Instead they have produced a geographical-like representation of network delay measurement data, much like a topographical map, which they term network delay spaceat timet.
Figure 1 — A snapshot of a network delay space. Circles represent routers. Colored lines represent the shortest (geodesic) paths.
By piecing together different snapshots over time, they have produced an animation that shows how the network delay space evolves, or as they say, how the network breathes.
They hope that this provides inspiration for other researchers and operators. If you're looking for further inspiration, check out the artefacts from last years' Internet Visualization Exhibition and share your favourite Internet measurement visualisations with us at pulse@isoc.org (we'll feature them in our next newsletter).
Do you have a story or research to share? Email us pulse@isoc.org
Share Your Pulse Engagement Experience
Pulse is so much more than data: It's the context, research, and community that makes sense of it through this newsletter, the Pulse Blog and Pulse events.
To help us improve the way we engage with you and our expanding community in 2026 we'd appreciate it if you can take seven minutes to complete a survey. For your troubles, we're awarding 2 USD 100 digital vouchers.
The Pulse Team will be participating in and presenting at APRICOT 2026 and Asia Pacific Internet Exchange Association (APIX) meeting. Be sure to come say hi and share your experience and suggestions.
This interactive event is expected to serve to discuss and develop research strategies to measure and develop evidence-based strategies for connecting rural and underserved schools to the Internet in Indonesia and the Asia Pacific.
The Pulse Team will be hosting an interactive session at RightsCon 2026 to develop a community led research proposal.
Stay tuned to our event page for details of our events in 2026. And email us at pulse@isoc.org if you’re interested in hosting, partnering, sponsoring, or presenting opportunities.
Email us to feature your news, events, reports, and stories pulse@isoc.org
Double Your Impact to Achieve an Internet for Everyone
Internet access can impact so much. For decades, the Internet has enabled us to create, grow, and learn more than we ever imagined.
Your gift helps keep the Internet a place of possibility for those of us who know and love it, and expands to reach people who have yet to take advantage of the opportunities it affords.
