General insights (from surveys):

• need to better understand viewers and what they actually "see" when they look at visual displays of networking data
• display data in forms quickly understood by operators, engineers & researchers
• move from the past (graph drawing, automatic layout) toward tools featuring more navigation and customization features as well as 3-D
• future challenges: scalability, real-time network monitoring/analysis/visualization (collect & display info, automatically detect/predict configurations and/or network faults), and applications (distributing visualization, security, and bandwidth)
• "what is really needed is a set of good questions" (hmmm...)

• on-line or near real-time rendering visualizations of massive datasets, e.g., thousands to millions of nodes
• developing external memory graph algorithms to help with the data management part and to organize graphs for visualization
• filtering & aggregating information & performing visualization transformation operations on these data

• interactive visualization and management (monitoring and control) systems for complex networks, tied to tools for gathering and analyzing statistics
• visualize both collected data (current or historic) as well as data generated from models, including changes to device configurations, links, traffic routes or characteristics, utilization, service level criteria, peering relationship, etc. -- ensure coverage of multiple technologies (IP, ATM, and bridging) and equipment from multiple vendors
• link topology (logical & geographic) to stats, e.g. Cisco router traffic, RTP/RTCP, SAP from SDR
• correlate/visualize various forms of active, passive, routing and other data

• cflowd - enhancing reporting capabilities
• MakeSys Products: adding automated design capabilities for multitechnology/ multiservice networks; network topology analysis support for emerging networking technologies and for developing new features that facilitate model building, traffic engineering, and performance analyses for large ISPs and carriers
• nam - better scenario editing capability, conversion tools for import of raw network data, support for user-customizable visualization, support for large-scale visualization
• skitter - enhancing visualization and reporting capabilities
• Tom Sawyer - enhancing software for network design, management and optimization applications
• VisualRoute - adding related performance metrics
• WhatRoute - adding database of locations and end-users to database

• graphical display of traffic between routers
• measurement, analysis and mapping of the geography of the Internet (including Internet addresses, hyperlink structures, visual multi-user virtual worlds
• debugging and optimizing multicast implementations (thru visual tools)
• real-time data collection from layer-2 and layer-3 transit nodes, and monitoring link quality, router configuration (BGP, peering, access lists) and traffic performance
• extend 2-D layouts of network topology data to 3-D
• interactively explore large graphs (offline layouts?; aggregation?)
• combine / correlate data from multiple source machines
• determine how many machines necessary to get `good' coverage of core and edge sites
• animations of Internet traffic? growth?
• development of flexible models:
• nodes, edges, paths, higher-order objects
as well as
• topology, static configuration, traffic and events at network elements

(incomplete! revision planned post-ISMA)

• ability to accommodate extreme scale and multiple levels of abstraction e.g. layering in networks and services
• distributed visualization tools
• visualization architectures and new forms of interaction with visual images
• tools that support easy-to-use and intuitive management interfaces
• incorporation of view linking, pattern recognition, and visual fraud detection techniques
• visual interface to assist users aggregating and comparing network attributes
• visualize flows based on application/protocol types, e.g. VPNs
• visualize end-to-end traffic statistics

• fundamental requirement: data, data, data (real-time if possible)
• ways to "diff" loss or latency for a small to medium network (tens to hundreds of nodes) at different points in time
• methods for visually characterizing "normal/expected" (and abnormal) traffic behavior
• mapping of traffic flows to a network model when the traffic endpoints are outside the network model (i.e., modeling transit flows across an ISP)
• inferring end-to-end traffic patterns from interface statistics
• automated construction of integrated models of networks including IP routers, ATM switches, and layer 2 switches
• real-time diagnostic tools to localize and understand breakages, including fiber cuts, BGP configuration failures, unexpected traffic loading, or security intrusions

• more effective means of extracting lessons learned from other industries, e.g., airline industry, telephone network, electric power grid
• better feedback from large/backbone ISPs and testing in the field, e.g., commercial Internet
• more effective means of putting the tools in the hands of the networking community
• ability to scale up to number of nodes ISPs need to visualize/simulate (tens of thousands / millions)
• more attempts to measure and map the Internet infrastructure, emphasizing the global nature of the Net
• scale visualization techniques to keep up with the larger and faster networks that are now emerging

(again - revised list to be available post-ISMA)

General Info: