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

2. 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.

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

4. 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

5. Final Product

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. Object Identifiers F Sequence of integers F Allocated a textual name for simplicity F Organised into a global tree of known identifiers F sysUpTime = 1.3.6.1.2.1.1.3

10. 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 }

11. SNMP Tool

12. 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

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

14. Gathering Dynamic Information

15. Node Information Popup Menu

16. 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"); }

17. Ring Layout

18. Sorting powerhub lerwick mathuselahrosemarychookdhpcmackrypton titan colossus powerhub titanmathuselahpowerhubchookdhpcmac

19. Sorted Ring Layout

20. Star Layout

21. Sorted Star Layout

22. Sphere Layout

23. Sorted Sphere Layout

24. Sorted Central Node Sphere

25. Hierarchal Layout

26. 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.