Want to keep tabs of how much your ISP uses Deep Packet Inspection to shape and throttle broadband traffic? Your first stop is the The Network is Aware website, overseen by Professor Milton Mueller of Syracuse University and his team of international investigators. They've published the global results of the Glasnost test, an application deployed by MLab that allows broadband subscribers to detect traffic shaping on their account.

"Network transparency cuts both ways," the site notes. "It can be exploited to engage in surveillance of Internet service providers as well as Internet users." The MLab test lets users track for shaping on BitTorrent, eMule, Gnutella, e-mail (POP and IMAP4), HTTP, SSH, Usenet (NNTP) and Flash video apps like YouTube.

Supported by the National Science Foundation, Network is Aware derives data from this collective research. Among the tools available on the site is an interactive table (below) that surveys BitTorrent throttling by United States ISPs from the second quarter in 2008 through Q2 2010.

The first year is significant because that is when the Federal Communications Commission cracked down on Comcast's P2P throttling. Even through a federal court ruled that the FCC's action is illegal, you can see the extent to which DPI use has declined among top ISPs between 2008 and 2010.

Here are 2008 and 2010 charts.

In the case of the Netherlands (below), DPI deployment is still alive and well, even with some decline. UPC Nederland, for example, showed a positive DPI percentage of 0.16 in Q2 2008. In 2009 subscribers complained to the cable ISP about throttling, and the company responded. But by Q1 2010 the company's rate was still 0.11.

You can also track DPI deployment of all ISPs in a given country, or the activity of a specific ISP. In some instances the results show that DPI use has remained fairly steady, and very active. Consider for example, Rogers Cable in Canada. The percentage of tests showing DPI use has remained consistent after a big jump in the third quarter of 2008—around 80 percent.

The Network Is Aware advises researchers to watch the test number column. Obviously test data arrays greater than 450 will be more reliable than smaller groups of tests. "This feature of the website will be developed more extensively as we process more data and develop additional tools for searching and visualizing the results," the investigators promise.