Network Geolocation Technology

National Security Agency, Ft. George G. Meade, Maryland

A network geolocation technology (NGT) can be used to determine the physical location of a networked Internet user, as well as accurately determine if an Internet user is in fact in the metropolitan service area that the user claims as his/her location. NGT is based on the laws of physics, and operates independent of an IP address lookup or any other pre-existing user network address profiles.

In the NGT network latency topography map, latency between stations (squares) and known endpoints (circles) is used to geolocate the subject user (star).

NGT uses the latency of communications to and from an address to determine its location. In order to do this, a network latency topology map is created based on the latency between multiple network stations and known network endpoints. The system is especially useful for determining if a user is actually at the location he/she claims.

There are a number of commercial services that report the physical location for an Internet IP address by looking up the address in a proprietary database. Such systems will not scale well when the Internet moves from IP version 4 with 32 bits of address space to IP version 6 with 128 bits. NGT will not be affected by the IPv4 to IPv6 migration.

The NGT system is difficult to spoof, and when it gives a location, it is accurate. The system might not be able to confirm a location fix and return a false negative, but it will not generate a false positive.

For more information, contact Darin Oelkers at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; 406-994-7780.