What is Kermit?
Kermit is a broadband management prototype we created to help everyday users manage their home Internet connections. It visually shows:
- Who's online on your home network
- Who might be hogging the bandwidth in the home
- A history of bandwidth usage over time for all your home network devices
Kermit also allows you to limit or prioritize different devices' network traffic. It is a browser based application accessible from any machine connected to your home network.
Although Kermit is a working prototype, it serves primarily as a research instrument to help us learn about how to create broadband management tools for the average home Internet user.
How is Kermit implemented and why?
Kermit uses Rflow Collector and DD-WRT on a Linksys router to gather traffic information. All information is stored in a SQL database and queried using PHP. The front-end is implemented in Adobe Flex and uses XML-RPC to talk to the back-end. Kermit is not unique in that there are existing broadband management tools out there to help users track bandwidth usage and other detailed network information (e.g. Tomato). However, Kermit is different because it's a research tool and it was developed to make managing the home network easier for everyone, not just technical savvy individuals. We tested Kermit out with various types of households to learn about what information home Internet users want to see and control. We also wanted to learn how to make these kinds of tools easier to use for a broader base than those who are motivated to flash a router with new firmware. We encourage others to develop other tools in a similar vein.
Where and when can I get Kermit?
Kermit is still in the research phase and not available for public distribution yet. However, we're working on refining Kermit and creating other broadband management tools for the everyday user. We will post news and updates as they become available on this page.
What is Kermit's relation to the old school networking protocol Kermit?
Kermit is not related at all to the Kermit project created by Columbia university in 1981, which will come to a close in July 2011. Two things to note here are that firstly Kermit is not a commercial product. It's a research instrument we created to help us understand user needs. Secondly, we named the system based on our affinity for the frog and as homage to both Jim Henson and Columbia's Kermit protocol.
Where can I read more about Kermit?
Read more about Kermit and our research in our paper presented at the top tier Human-Computer Interaction conference, CHI 2011 held in Vancouver in May 2011. This paper was amongst the top 1% of submissions to the conference and it was awarded a "Best Paper" award, 1 of 15 awards in total.
Kermit was featured in many tech blogs and news sites notably Slashdot, Boing Boing, Networked World and Ars Technica. Kermit was also featured on our Georgia Tech webpage and digital lounge and you can watch a short clip of the story here.
Are you commercializing Kermit or is this an open source project?
Kermit is currently being used for research purposes only. As we strive to make the prototype more easily distributable to the public, we will make the source code available on this page.
Can I contribute to the project in any way?
We're always interested in enthusiastic undergraduate and graduate students who want to get involved with either the back-end implementation of Kermit or the UI design. If you're at Georgia Tech, feel free to drop me a note directly. If you're outside of Tech, consider applying to our great programs and joining the BISmark mailing list (see instructions below) for ways to contribute to the back-end system. And if you're keen on providing creative feedback, drop me a note anytime. We have also set up a project blog for Kermit and plan to post news there.
Where's the RSS feed/mailing list/news page for Kermit?
We have set up a project blog for Kermit here and we will keep it as current as possible.
What's the timeline for Kermit to be publicly available?
We're unable to commit to a timeline for now but suffice to say we're working on it.
Are there any related projects I can read about and is there a mailing list I can join?
Our collaborators at Georgia Tech are working on the networking side of broadband management tools. This is *not* Kermit but a related project with a different interface. Check out their project called BISmark:
- Here's a description of the BISmark project, which performs the active and passive network measurements needed to power systems like Kermit.
- Here's instructions for how to install it.
- There's also a BISmark mailing list to support BISmark and which occasionally has news related to the Kermit project.