ABSTRACT
WhatsApp, the new giant in instant multimedia messaging in mobile networks is rapidly increasing its popularity, taking over the traditional SMS/MMS messaging. In this paper we present the first large-scale characterization of WhatsApp, useful among others to ISPs willing to understand the impacts of this and similar applications on their networks. Through the combined analysis of passive measurements at the core of a national mobile network, worldwide geo-distributed active measurements, and traffic analysis at end devices, we show that: (i) the WhatsApp hosting architecture is highly centralized and exclusively located in the US; (ii) video sharing covers almost 40% of the total WhatsApp traffic volume; (iii) flow characteristics depend on the OS of the end device; (iv) despite the big latencies to US servers, download throughputs are as high as 1.5 Mbps; (v) users react immediately and negatively to service outages through social networks feedbacks.
- P. Fiadino, et al., "HTTPTag: A Flexible On-line HTTP Classification System for Operational 3G Networks", in IEEE INFOCOM, 2013.Google ScholarCross Ref
- I. Bermudez, et al., "DNS to the rescue: Discerning Content and Services in a Tangled Web", in ACM IMC, 2012. Google ScholarDigital Library
- A. Bar, et al., "DBStream: an Online Aggregation, Filtering and Processing System for Network Traffic Monitoring", in TRAC, 2014.Google ScholarCross Ref
Index Terms
- Vivisecting whatsapp through large-scale measurements in mobile networks
Recommendations
Everyday dwelling with WhatsApp
CSCW '14: Proceedings of the 17th ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work & social computingIn this paper, we present a study of WhatsApp, an instant messaging smartphone application. Through our interviews with participants, we develop anthopologist Tim Ingold's notion of dwelling, and discuss how use of WhatsApp is constitutive of a felt-...
WhatsApp Calling: a Revised Analysis on WhatsApp's Architecture and Calling Service
LANCOMM '16: Proceedings of the 2016 workshop on Fostering Latin-American Research in Data Communication NetworksThe use of instant messaging applications in mobile networks has largely increased in recent years, replacing traditional messaging applications (SMS, MMS). WhatsApp is the application of this kind with the greatest market share worldwide; as a ...
What's up with whatsapp?: comparing mobile instant messaging behaviors with traditional SMS
MobileHCI '13: Proceedings of the 15th international conference on Human-computer interaction with mobile devices and servicesWith the advent of instant mobile messaging applications, traditional SMS is in danger of loosing it's reign as the king of mobile messaging. Applications like WhatsApp allow mobile users to send real-time text messages to individuals or groups of ...
Comments