Visualization of Computer Networks By Richard Zschech Supervisors: Dr. Ken Hawick, Dr. Paul Coddington.

Goals Development of generic graph visualising package. Develop three dimensional graph layout algorithms. Network monitoring package as an application for the graph visualising package.

3D Graph Package Node 1 Transform Appearance Graph Root Scene Node Node 2 Transform Appearance Node N Transform Appearance Node Shape Edge 1 Transform Appearance Edge 2 Transform Appearance Edge N Transform Appearance Edge Shape

Layout Algorithms Requirements: –Even spacing between nodes. –No overlapping edges. –Fixed length edges. Algorithms: –Genetic algorithm. –Spring algorithm.

The Graph File Format Extensible Markup Language (XML) Advantages: –No version problems like Java serialisation –Human readable and editable Problems: –No positional information about nodes. –No support for user defined information attached to the nodes and edges.

XML Graph Example /> <edge id="e1" tail="c" head="b“ directed="true"/> <edge id="e2" tail="c" head="a“ directed="true"/> <edge id="e3" tail="b" head="a“ directed="true"/>

Network Monitoring Module Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) –For Exploring the network using routing tables. –Gathering statistics. –Building and updating the graph.

The User Interface Module Freely move around and interact with the graph. Filter different parts of the graph. Choose graph layout algorithms. Load and save the graph. Explore the network via the network monitoring module.

The Overall Design Graph Graph3D Graph Layout Network Monitoring User Interface Graph File Format