Network visualization : a review

As communication networks increase in performance and complexity, and more de- pendence is placed upon them, it becomes ever more important that their behaviour is understood in an efficient and timely manner. Visualisation is an established tech- nique for the presentation of the vast volume of data yielded in monitoring such networks. It is apparent, however, that much of the work in this area has been per- formed in isolation, and it is timely that a review of this research is conducted. This paper surveys the techniques for the visualisation of communication networks and re- lated measurements. The research is classified by the type of visualisation used, and is separated into three classes: geographic visualisations, where the data is presented with respect to the physical location of nodes in the network; abstract topological visualisations, where the relationships between nodes are presented independently of physical location; and plot-based visualisation, where the focus is a single point in the network, often presented with respect to time. The research in this area is reviewed and the techniques proposed are discussed in terms of the three classes.