Oct 26, 2026
TU Dresden receives EUR 1.8 million to preserve vital internet measurement data
Preserving data for researching the internet: The federal government is funding the research project “RISE: Rescuing Internet Signals and Evidence of UCSD-NT and SecSpider,” based at the Chair of Distributed and Networked Systems at TUD Dresden University of Technology. The goal of the RISE project is to ensure the long-term preservation in Europe of two globally unique datasets that are essential for understanding the evolution of the internet and to make them accessible to researchers worldwide. The datasets are at risk because their long-term storage and maintenance are currently not guaranteed.
TUD’s RISE project aims to establish the technical, organizational, and legal conditions needed to sustainably preserve two valuable datasets that are essential for understanding the internet and to improve their availability. “The internet is a critical infrastructure. Its stability and security influence nearly all societal and technical systems,” says Prof. Matthias Wählisch, Chair of Distributed and Networked Systems at TUD’s Faculty of Computer Science. “With RISE, we aim to preserve unique measurement data that is indispensable for understanding today’s internet and for developing the resilient infrastructures of tomorrow.”
The datasets in question document the development and current state of the Internet over a period of more than 20 years. As such, they form an essential resource for understanding the global dynamics, security threats, and ongoing development of the most significant communication infrastructure of our time. Due to their size and the continuity of the data over time, these datasets are of exceptional signifiance and will continue to play a key role in the future — for example, in assessing internet threats, developing technical standards, and shaping digital security policies. The German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) and the German Research Foundation (DFG) are providing EUR 1.8 million in funding to preserve the datasets and support their scientific analysis.
“This funding enables the establishment of additional storage capacity of more than 40 petabytes (equivalent to 40 million gigabytes) at the Center for Information Services and High Performance Computing at TU Dresden, which is necessary for the long-term preservation of Internet measurement data,” emphasizes Wählisch. With RISE, we are ensuring the long-term availability of scientific data for transparent and reproducible internet research. This approach and this funding once again underscore the importance of our research at TUD.“
Unique datasets for understanding the development and functioning of the internet
DUCSD-NT is the largest "network telescope" for internet research.. Unlike astronomical telescopes, this system monitors a portion of internet traffic. The Center for Applied Internet Data Analysis (CAIDA) has been operating the telescope and continuously collecting this data since 2003. The dataset enables researchers to observe relevant changes on the internet: These include internet outages, the spread of malware, new security threats, and the introduction of new internet protocols. The collection encompasses internet traffic at more than 16 million IP addresses. In terms of coverage and temporal continuity, this dataset is one of the foremost sources for internet research worldwide.
SecSpider collects all the key data necessary to secure the Domain Name System (DNS). The DNS including its security extensions (DNSSEC) translates domain names (such as www.tu-dresden.de) into internet addresses (e.g., 141.76.14.10), enabling users to access internet services in a simple and secure manner. SecSpider makes it possible to study the security and reliability of DNS and DNSSEC over long periods of time. The dataset contains security-related data, for example cryptographic keys and signatures, from approximately 15.4 million domains. It helps researchers understand issues such as how security mechanisms are implemented in practice and how they can be further improved. These mechanisms include the exchange of cryptographic keys and the introduction of new security standards.
Long-term availability of scientific data for traceable and reproducible internet research
The goal is to make the datasets accessible for research purposes via a European infrastructure that is interconnected with national data services of the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) and European services available through the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC).