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Abstract:
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Otter is a new CAIDA tool for visualizing arbitrary network data that can
be expressed as a set of nodes, links or paths. We developed Otter to
handle visualization tasks for a wide variety of Internet data we deal with
in our research, including data sets on topology, workload, performance,
and routing. We have used Otter to visualize: multicast and unicast
topology databases, core BGP routing tables, reachability and delay
measurements, SNMP data, and web site directory structures. Otter's
strength is in its data independence: it can handle any formatted data set
consisting of links and nodes.
Otter achieves its versatility in what data it can process by using a data
format specification prepended to each input file. This specification
stipulates attributes of each object in the data file, which Otter uses to
tailor its visualizations and even adapt its user interface to a specific
data domain. We describe and provide examples of Otter's visualization
features, how it achieves data independence, present case studies of
Otter's utility in practice, and outline possible future directions for
Otter.
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