M-Lab NDT

Spec sheet

Purpose

NDT measures a connection’s capacity for bulk transport and reports upload speed, download speed, and latency metrics.Read 7 Oct 2026 · measurementlab.net

Intended users

M-Lab describes its platform as supporting researchers and says its open performance data can be used by consumers, operators, regulators, researchers, and civil society.Read 7 Oct 2026 · measurementlab.net

Audience

M-Lab says its free, open Internet measurement data is intended to help researchers, regulators, advocacy groups, and the public understand Internet performance.Read 7 Oct 2026 · measurementlab.net

Integrations

M-Lab publishes NDT data through BigQuery and archives raw measurement data in Google Cloud Storage.Read 7 Oct 2026 · measurementlab.net

Privacy

M-Lab says its tests do not collect information about other Internet traffic or personally identifiable information, while collected test data, including connecting IP addresses, is made public indefinitely and cannot be deleted per individual test.Read 7 Oct 2026 · measurementlab.net

Support

M-Lab directs NDT users to contact [email protected] for support.Read 7 Oct 2026 · measurementlab.net

Founded

2009Read 28 Sep 2026 · measurementlab.net

Client integrations

M-Lab lists reference clients for Go and JavaScript and community-supported clients for iOS, Android, and C++.Read 7 Oct 2026 · measurementlab.net

Client platforms

The NDT page links to community-supported iOS and Android clients and reference Go and JavaScript clients.Read 7 Oct 2026 · measurementlab.net

Collected information

NDT collects the user’s IP address along with measurement results; M-Lab says NDT does not collect information about the user as an Internet user.Read 7 Oct 2026 · measurementlab.net

Data collection

NDT collects the user’s ISP-provided IP address with measurement results and publishes test results to support Internet research.Read 7 Oct 2026 · measurementlab.net

Data retention

M-Lab says test data is published publicly and retained indefinitely, and it cannot delete data associated with an individual test once collected.Read 7 Oct 2026 · measurementlab.net

Diagnosis

M-Lab describes NDT as testing connection speed and providing a sophisticated diagnosis of problems limiting speed.Read 7 Oct 2026 · measurementlab.net

Host eligibility

Host-managed contributions are accepted from organizations such as ISPs, hosting providers, network operators, universities, research institutions, public-sector bodies, and qualifying nonprofits.Read 7 Oct 2026 · measurementlab.net

Host-managed data

M-Lab says it does not manage host-managed servers or their software services, and keeps their data separate from data produced by M-Lab-managed servers.Read 7 Oct 2026 · measurementlab.net

Hosting limits

Host-managed nodes require Linux with Docker and tcp_bbr support, at least four 2 GHz CPUs, 4 GB RAM, 50 GB disk, and specified network connectivity and ports.Read 7 Oct 2026 · measurementlab.net

Open source

M-Lab states that all hosted tests are open source and created and maintained by researchers.Read 7 Oct 2026 · measurementlab.net

Protocol status

M-Lab says support for ndt5+raw ended in January 2024 and encourages client integrations to use ndt7.Read 7 Oct 2026 · measurementlab.net

Protocols

NDT supports ndt5 for compatibility with legacy clients and ndt7, which uses TCP BBR where available and operates on HTTP(S) ports 80 and 443.Read 7 Oct 2026 · measurementlab.net

Raw data

Raw data and log files from the measurement fleet are archived in Google Cloud Storage, including packet captures for most NDT tests.Read 7 Oct 2026 · measurementlab.net

Research data

NDT results are published for Internet research, and M-Lab offers query access to NDT data in BigQuery for free by Google Group subscription.Read 7 Oct 2026 · measurementlab.net

Self hosting

Organizations can host M-Lab servers using Docker Compose, subject to M-Lab registration and technical requirements.Read 7 Oct 2026 · measurementlab.net

Test method

M-Lab tests run only when a person starts them and measure the network’s response to a synthetic data stream.Read 7 Oct 2026 · measurementlab.net

Transfer limit

The ndt7 client supports an opt-in data transfer limit.Read 7 Oct 2026 · measurementlab.net

Where Specifiction places it

• Network Testing Software#20 of 337.7