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

Motivations F Computer visualisation techniques offer the opportunity to display complicated sets of information in an easy to view and easy to understand manner. F Computer networks are by their very nature complicated.

Previous 3D Visualization Work F File System Navigator F Information Cube

Overview F Development of computer network mapping and visualising program –Develop three-dimensional graph package –Network Mapping and Monitoring package –Graph layout algorithms –Interactive user interface

Final Product

Three-Dimensional Graph Package Node 1 TG Appearance Shape Geometry Node 2 TG Node N TG Edge N TG Edge 1 TG Appearance Shape Geometry Edge 2 TG Graph TG

Issues with Java 3D F Simple to use F Slow rendering of graphics –Difficult to get feel of three-dimensions –Difficult to interact with the graph –Can disorient the user F Could use lower level Immediate mode rendering

Network Monitoring Module F Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) –For exploring the network using routing tables –Gathering statistics –Building and updating the graph F Management Information Base (MIB) –Object Identifiers –Managed Objects F Serialisation –Abstract Syntax Notation –Basic Encoding Rules

Object Identifiers F Sequence of integers F Allocated a textual name for simplicity F Organised into a global tree of known identifiers F sysUpTime =

Example MIB Definition sysUpTime OBJECT-TYPE SYNTAX TimeTicks ACCESS read-only STATUS mandatory DESCRIPTION "The time (in hundredths of a second) since the network management portion of the system was last re-initialized.” ::= { system 3 }

SNMP Tool

Issues With SNMP F Good for gathering fairly static information like connectivity of a network F Does not contain much support for dynamic information about network F Takes a long time to map networks

XML Graph File Example... More nodes and edges for powerhub... More nodes and edges for ROOTGRAPH

Gathering Dynamic Information

Node Information Popup Menu

Settings File -- Node Scale settings SCALE_OBJECT_ID = "ifNumber" SCALE_MAX_VALUE = 100 SCALE_MIN_VALUE = 0 SCALE_MAX = 10 SCALE_MIN = 3 SCALE_NON_SNMP = 2 -- Statistics to gather for each node NODE_INFO { "Name", "sysDescr"; "Up Time", "sysUpTime"; "Total Speed", SUM("ifSpeed"); }

Ring Layout

Sorting powerhub lerwick mathuselahrosemarychookdhpcmackrypton titan colossus powerhub titanmathuselahpowerhubchookdhpcmac

Sorted Ring Layout

Star Layout

Sorted Star Layout

Sphere Layout

Sorted Sphere Layout

Sorted Central Node Sphere

Hierarchal Layout

Conclusions F Good layouts can be achieved using hierarchical methods. F Good layouts are often application dependant. F Three-dimensional visualisation requires fast rendering and an environment that is easy to interact with.