PlanetLab

{{Short description|Group of computers available as a testbed for computer networking and distributed systems research}}

{{third-party|date=June 2014}}

PlanetLab was a group of computers available as a testbed for computer networking and distributed systems research. It was established in 2002 by Prof. Larry L. Peterson and Prof. David Culler,{{Cite conference |url= https://conferences.sigcomm.org/hotnets/2002/papers/peterson.ps| title= A Blueprint for Introducing Disruptive Technology into the Internet|last1=Peterson|first1=Larry|last2=Anderson|first2=Tom|last3=Culler|first3=David|last4=Roscoe|first4=Timothy|book-title=First Hotnets Workshop|year=2002}} and by 2005 it had been deployed at 252 sites in 28 countries. {{cite journal|last1=Anderson|first1=Tom|last2=Peterson|first2=Larry|last3=Shenker|first3=Scott|last4=Turner|first4=Jonathan|title=Overcoming the Internet Impasse Through Virtualization|journal=IEEE Computer|date=April 2025|url=https://homes.cs.washington.edu/~tom/support/impasse.pdf|access-date=17 March 2025}} Each research project had a "slice", or virtual machine access to a subset of the nodes.

Accounts were limited to persons affiliated with corporations and universities that hosted PlanetLab nodes. However, a number of free, public services have been deployed on PlanetLab, including CoDeeN, the Coral Content Distribution Network, and Open DHT. {{Cite conference|url=https://conferences.sigcomm.org/sigcomm/2005/paper-RheGod.pdf|last1=Rhea|first1=Sean|last2=Godfrey|first2=Brighten|display-authors=1|title=OpenDHT: A Public DHT Service and Its Uses|book-title=Proceedings of SIGCOMM 2005|year=2005}}

PlanetLab was officially shut down in May 2020{{Cite web|url=https://systemsapproach.org/2020/03/19/its-been-a-fun-ride/|title = It's Been a Fun Ride| date=19 March 2020|access-date=17 March 2025|publisher=Systems Approach }} but continues in Europe.{{Cite web|url=https://www.planet-lab.eu/node/233|title = A special welcome to PlanetLab Users from the US|publisher=PlanetLab Europe|date=23 March 2020|access-date=17 March 2025}}