Reverse Geographic Location of a Computer Node

The determination of methods by which a user is able to locate his computer when that user does not know his current location, termed "homestation", will provide the Air Force an advantage over its adversaries. The methods are a combination of different mathematical techniques that enable the user to manipulate data to minimize the effects of delay caused by various factors on the network. The techniques use the smallest round trip time obtained from the ping utility. This time is then converted into miles and plotted on a map of the United States. The methods used to solve this problem are trilateration, a trilateration variant, the slope-intercept method, and the reverse traceroute combined with Euclidean distance. The results from the methods described in this research provide insight to fundamental problems that need to be resolved to achieve this capability.Air Force Inst of Tech Wright-Patterson AFB OH School of Engineering and Management is the author of 'Reverse Geographic Location of a Computer Node', published 2003 under ISBN 9781423502531 and ISBN 1423502531.