meterIP

meterIP is a proposed open standard and ecosystem for measuring internet protocol performance across distributed endpoints. It defines a common set of telemetry primitives that enable end-to-end and hop-by-hop measurements of IP networks, including latency, jitter, packet loss, and path characteristics. The goal of meterIP is to provide interoperable measurement data that can support network diagnosis, capacity planning, and research.

The concept emerged in the mid-2010s from researchers and industry groups seeking standardized measurement methods for IP networks. Various pilot implementations and pilot programs appeared in academic projects and vendor testbeds, but broad adoption has varied by organization and use case. As a result, meterIP remains a framework with multiple implementations rather than a single universal product.

Architecture of meterIP centers on meters deployed at customer premises, data centers, or network edge devices. Meters perform active measurements such as periodic probes and traceroute-like path probes, and can also observe passive traffic for telemetry. Results are time-stamped with synchronized clocks (NTP or PTP) and reported to a central collection service using a lightweight, authenticated transport. The system emphasizes low measurement overhead and scalability for large networks.

Key features include support for IPv4 and IPv6, secure authentication and encryption, configurable measurement cadence, and privacy controls to filter or redact sensitive data. Telemetry formats are designed to be compact and extensible, commonly using JSON or a binary encoding such as CBOR. meterIP is used for network performance monitoring, benchmarking, incident detection, and academic research, while acknowledging limitations related to meter deployment, clock synchronization, and data privacy concerns. See also: active measurement, network telemetry, IP SLA.