The Observer Effect in Internet Measurement: A Case Study of Route Origin Validation

@inproceedings{Mohsenpour2026,
	title        = {The Observer Effect in Internet Measurement: A Case Study of Route Origin Validation},
	author       = {Abbas Mohsenpour and Cristel Pelsser},
	year         = 2026,
	month        = nov,
	day          = 16,
	booktitle    = {Proceedings of the 25th ACM Workshop on Hot Topics in Networks ({HotNets} '26)},
	publisher    = {Association for Computing Machinery},
	address      = {New York, NY, USA},
	location     = {Salt Lake City, UT, USA},
	series       = {HotNets '26},
	numpages     = 9,
	doi          = {10.1145/3847290.3859951},
	artifacts    = {https://github.com/AbbasMP17/measurement-awareness-rov},
	isbn         = {979-8-4007-3029-0},
	url          = {https://doi.org/10.1145/3847290.3859951},
	abstract     = {Internet observatories publish reports that shape how networks are assessed and perceived, for example in terms of their security compliance. To ensure transparency and reproducibility, they rely on public, long-lived infrastructure that the networks under evaluation can recognize. We study measurement awareness, defined as a network treating recognizable measurement targets differently from functionally equivalent but non-recognizable ones. Measurement awareness describes observable behavior; unlike measurement gaming, it makes no assumption about intent. Using Route Origin Validation (ROV) as a case study, we compare publicly known RPKI-invalid targets against functionally equivalent but undisclosed shadow targets. We identify networks that reject the well-known invalid prefixes while accepting the equivalent shadow prefixes. During responsible disclosure, one operator confirmed that it explicitly filters the prefix used by the Is BGP Safe Yet? observatory. Observatories may thus capture not the properties they intend to measure, but the behavior networks expose to them.},
	groups       = {International Conferences},
	related      = {Quinzi2026},
	keywords     = {Internet measurement, Measurement-aware networks, Route Origin Validation, RPKI, BGP, Routing Security}
}