Reliable neutral global networks for connectivity testing

Fri May 5 15:58:59 UTC 2023

Hey all, I have a niche problem and wanted to get some feedback and ideas.

I am trying to find some global networks that accept ICMP requests that I
can use to ping and based on the packet loss try to understand if the
client is having connectivity issues or uses an unreliable internet
connection. The exact testing logic is here
https://github.com/jsdelivr/globalping-probe/blob/master/src/lib/status-manager.ts#L66

It basically requires 2/3 endpoints to have 0 packet loss when sending 6
packets to each.

Some requirements:
- Must be a global anycasted network since the client devices can be
anywhere
- Must be neutral. Meaning no government or ISP having a reason to block
it. This eliminates Google, Microsoft, Akamai, Cloudflare... (blocked in
China and elsewhere)
- Must be reliable to avoid false-positives as much as possible.
- Must be public and open. The network must be ok with random devices
sending packets to them
- Must be safe and controlled by a trusted entity

I am currently trying to use DNS root servers https://root-servers.org/ but
turns out many of them are unreliable for this use-case, I have noticed bad
routing resulting in high latency and lots of packet loss at random.

Same goes for pool.ntp.org where some Chinese users hit Amsterdam for some
reason. This results in high packet loss marking the test as false-positive.

Popular public DNS resolvers are also controlled by companies that are
mostly likely to be banned in certain countries.

Am I missing any other networks that fit the requirements? Any ideas on how
to go about this would be appreciated,

Thanks
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