map-the-internet/README.md

# Map the Internet (MTI)

A project that is designed to scrape the internet to create a visualization of the internet.

## How does it work?
![A diagram depicting how the workers communicate with the server](static/diagram.png?)

The process of mapping the internet is fairly simple:
1. The server assigns a worker a domain/list of paths to index.
2. The worker goes through each page of respecting robots.txt.
3. The worker makes a list of all a tags which link to an external domain.
4. The list is sent to the server which compares each external domain to its database.

The process operates in 3 stages:
1. Initial Stage/Exponential Growth - The number of new domains is much greater than the existing domains. 
2. Saturation Stage - The number of new domains is lower than the amount of existing domains.
3. Rescanning Stage - Existing domains are periodically rescanned looking for new links.

## MTI Worker Protocol (MTIWP) Specification
MTIWP is a TCP-based binary application layer protocol used to communicate between the workers and coordination server. 

The packet is made up of the following fields:
- Header (19 Bytes)
  - Version (2 Bytes)
  - Worker ID (6 Bytes)
  - Timestamp (8 Bytes)
  - Method (1 Byte)
  - Payload Length (2 Bytes)
- Payload (0-65535 Bytes)

Valid Methods:
- ACK (0x00)
- Ping (0x01)
- Pong (0x02)
- Hello (0x03)
- Index (0x04)
- Cancel (0x05)
- Summary (0x06)

Further Detail Goes Here