iThena^[8] is a distributed computation and measurement project running on the BOINC^[9](Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing).

Introduction

The main goal of the iThena project is to model the infrastructure of networks of the global Internet as real as possible. This modelling can be done on many levels: routers, PoPs (point of presence) and AS (autonomous systems). The model may have characteristics such as latency, bandwidth, packet loss and others.

The first initiated test activity of the iThena project took place on August 29, 2019.

First official message about the project was sent September 26, 2019^[4].

Origin of the project name

The name of the project to the word cluster: iThena = Internet + Athena. The word Internet defines the global network infrastructure and the information it contains. The word Athena has a standard genesis that refers to Greek mythology and defines the crowds of knowledge, wisdom and prudence.

Architect / System administrator

The main architect and system administrator is Lukasz Swierczewski, who was previously the administrator of many other large scale systems (e.g. OProject@Home^[23]). He graduated from Lomza State University of Applied Sciences in Łomża (Eng.^[11]), Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin (M.Sc.^[12]) and National Defence University of Warsaw (postgraduate). Computer scientist^[13] and programmer supporting open-source software initiatives. Previously mainly programmer in the area of high performance computing systems (HPC) and supercomputers. A member of the Polish Mathematical Society.

Currently, the project is developed by the Cyber-Complex Foundation (place of institution registration: Europe/Poland).

Predecessors and similar projects

Historically, the predecessor of iThena is DIMES. DIMES analysed the topology of the Internet. CAIDA^[10](Center for Applied Internet Data Analysis) and RIPE Atlas^[19] also has a great contribution to the mapping of the network structure.

Nature of the project

The project has an experimental and research character.

iThena in its area is largely consistent with MASINT (Measurement and Signature Intelligence) - intelligence, which is the analysis of data and information obtained through distributed measurement systems in order to determine all characteristics and other information about the recognized object. However, in this case, the project activity space is cyberspace.

The BOINC clients applications that are launched mapping the network structure of the Internet.

The iThena applications^[3] in the initial phase of the project are only in NCI (CPU Non-Intensive) mode.

They do not make much use of computing resources (CPU time, RAM memory). However, the computer network traffic can be used to a much greater extent. iThena NCI applications map and/or check the availability of individual network nodes using generally known and legal technologies (e.g. ping, traceroute, Iperf, OWAMP^[21][22]).

The data obtained under the iThena project comes from open sources to a key extent.

The whole open society of Internet users (including BOINC users) contributes to the implementation and development of the system.

The data aggregated within the project will be partially classified as open and made available under an open licenses.

On the basis of data aggregated in the system it is possible to detect network anomalies.

This area contains anomalies concerning manipulation of data transmission routes^[24] - IP Hijacking Attacks and other issues.

It is planned to use distributed nodes for typical computing tasks.

By 24 April 2020, iThena has made about 250 billion distributed measurements.

On August 29, 2020, the official Twitter page (@iThenaProject^[26]) was launched on the first anniversary of the iThena project. Additionally, several other issues were mentioned^[25].

Project statistics are available, among others, in Free-DC^[5] and BOINCStats^[20] services.