Finding stable cliques of PlanetLab nodes

Users of large scale network testbeds often execute experiments that require a set of nodes that behave and communicate among themselves in a reasonably stable pattern. In this work we call such a set of nodes a stable clique, and introduce a monitoring strategy that allows their detection in PlanetLab, a non-trivial task for such a large scale dynamic network. Nodes monitor each other by sampling the RTT (Round-Trip-Time) and computing its variation. Based on this data and a threshold, pairs of nodes are classified as stable or unstable. A set of graphs is generated, on which maximum sized cliques are computed. Three experiments were conducted in which hundreds of nodes were monitored for several days. Results show the unexpected behavior of some nodes, and the size of the maximum stable clique for different time windows and different thresholds.