[atlas] More even earth distribution of measurement probes

My solution, for the record: 
https://gist.github.com/qm2k/ea5f67fcf4e3dd2208ab3bc4ee233560


--

With Best Regards,
Marat Khalili

On 10/03/17 11:47, Marat Khalili wrote:
> I'd like to check worldwide connectivity to my site. I create a new 
> measurement via web-interface and add, say, 300 probes, expecting them 
> to cover most world countries. However, looking at the map 
> <https://atlas.ripe.net/measurements/7861872/?filter=#map> I notice 
> that most are selected from Europe: there're two dozens in Netherlands 
> (many with same ASNs), but only two in Australia, one in Japan and 
> nothing in Brazil. Obviously, most ATLAS probes are from Europe, and 
> selection algorithm does not take probe density into account.
>
> Wouldn't it be nice to have the following features in web-interface 
> and API:
> * even distribution of probes by country or continent based on 
> population, area, and other user-defined weight numbers;
> * avoiding probes with same ASNs
> ?
>
> I don't know how current algorithm works, but easiest modification 
> would be two-step process: (1) randomly select country based on 
> specified weights; (2) randomly select probe within country, avoiding 
> earlier selected probes or ASNs and failing if none are left 
> available; repeat from step 1 until necessary number of probes is 
> selected.
>
> P.S. I tried to manually request 1 probe from each country, but 
> stumbled on unrecognised country codes, countries with no probes etc. 
> before even trying population-weighted distribution. Without direct 
> access to probes database nice solution can be difficult to achieve 
> via current API, although crude one looks possible.
>
> P.P.S. I understand this option will create more load on probes in 
> less-covered countries, but since it's possible to limit selection to 
> specific countries anyway this is hardly a strong argument against 
> adding this feature.
>
> --
>
> With Best Regards,
> Marat Khalili

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