March 2026 | Here's what's happened in the last month.
From the editor
In 2020, Pulse set out to curate measurement data from trusted sources to help everyone understand the availability, evolution, and resilience of the global Internet. This would not be possible without multiple Internet measurement projects that make their data open source.
To show our appreciation for our 'data partners,' we plan to share exclusive stories from them in this newsletter over the coming months, before publishing them on the Pulse Blog. It's our way to help increase awareness and collaboration among this amazing community. To this end, we plan to host a series of virtual community research forums, where our partners and community can discuss and learn about current research projects and themes.
Email us if you are interested in participating in these forums or contributing to our newsletter or Blog.
Seeing the Internet Differently with REx
The APNIC Resource Explorer (REx) is more than a statistics portal. It's a practical measurement framework for understanding:
Global IPv4, IPv6, and ASN delegation data across all Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) and National Internet Registries (NIRs)
Historical trends and transfer records
Internet measurements, including:
IPv6 deployment
RPKI coverage
DNSSEC usage
QUIC usage
Suspicious traffic (from APNIC HoneyNet Project)
AS interconnection visualization
The key strength of REx lies in its flexibility and interactivity. Users can filter by region, sub-region, economy, or registry, and compare multiple locations or registries within the same chart. This transforms REx from a reporting interface into an exploratory analytics tool.
Allocation and Deployment: Not Always Aligned
When delegation data is viewed alongside deployment metrics, a more nuanced picture emerges. Using REx, we can compare IPv6 delegations with measured IPv6 capability across selected economies.
In some cases, strong growth in IPv6 delegations is accompanied by modest deployment gains. In others, deployment outpaces recent allocation growth. This highlights an important operational reality: Delegation statistics reflect policy and registry activity. Deployment metrics, based on APNIC Labs measurement data, reflect real-world network enablement and user capability. Viewing both together provides a more complete assessment of Internet maturity.
Figure 1 — Viewing both delegation and deployment metrics together provides a more complete assessment of Internet maturity.
Investigate Routing Security
REx also allows users to analyse routing security posture through RPKI coverage metrics for the world, RIR regions, subregions, and economies.
Figure 2 — RPKI coverage (IPv4 and IPv6) for the world (top) and across selected economies (Samoa, Ghana, Mexico, and Poland)(bottom).
By comparing RPKI coverage alongside delegation and deployment trends, it becomes possible to assess whether security practices are keeping pace with network expansion.
A Framework For Better Questions
REx is not just about charts. It is about enabling better questions, such as:
Is resource growth translating into deployment?
Is routing security adoption keeping pace with expansion?
How do economies compare across multiple technical dimensions?
Where are structural interconnection patterns strengthening or weakening?
By combining allocation data, deployment measurements, routing security metrics, and topology visualization into a single filterable platform, REx supports deeper analysis across the Internet ecosystem.
Do you have a story or research to share? Email us pulse@isoc.org
Meet our 2026 Pulse Research Fellows and Mentors
The Internet Society is pleased to announce the fourth cohort of Pulse Research Fellows and the second cohort of Pulse Research Mentors.
Over the next eight months, the fellows and mentors will work with the Internet Society Pulse Research team to develop their proposed research projects.
Remember:
The Pulse Research Fellowship and Mentorship program allows individuals to bring new perspectives, innovative ideas, and research experience to the Pulse project, improving our understanding and analysis of the availability, evolution, and resilience of the Internet.
Thanks to everyone who applied. We received 190 applications from 51 countries, of which 22 were selected to submit detailed project proposals. All shortlisted projects were of very high quality and relevant to Pulse’s four focuses, which seek to measure and understand Internet shutdowns, Internet enabling technologies, Internet resilience, and market concentration.
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 two USD 100 digital vouchers.
The Pulse Team will be hosting a two-day workshop before DRIF 2026 to develop a community-led research proposal focused on the resilience of the Internet in West Africa.
The Pulse Team will be participating in and hosting a session at DRIF 2026 to get feedback on research proposals developed during the West African Internet Resilience Workshop.
Pulse Internet Measurement Forum, Jamaica
16 April, Kingston, Jamaica | In-person
This half-day workshop at CaribNOG 31 adopts a research-oriented, collaborative approach to identify current peering and Internet resilience challenges in the region and develop research proposals to validate and/or solve them.
The Pulse Team will be hosting an interactive session at RightsCon 2026 to develop a community-led research proposal. Share your research ideas before the event.
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
Help Achieve an Internet for Everyone
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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.
