Mbone Tunnels of the Major Backbone Networks

Tamara MunznerStanford University
Eric Hoffman Ipsilon Networks
kc claffy CAIDA at SDSC
Bill Fenner Xerox PARC

URL: http://www-graphics.stanford.edu/papers/mbone/

Visualization Thumbnail	About the Visualization
	Visualization Techniques: (Technique1): Convert machine-readable mrinfo data into NDP format. (Technique2): Add latitude and longitude to hostnames in the NDP file using hostresolve.perl (based on hostnames) and trim_bidirect (based on IP address) tools. (Technique3): Computer the shortest geodesic arc between lat/longs of the endpoints of each tunnel. The height of the arc depends on its length. Maintain a minimum arc height so that even short tunnels remain visible. (Technique3): Distinguish three groups of hosts where 1) both endpoints of tunnel belong to ISP, 2) one endpoint is within an ISP, and 3) neither endpoint lies within an ISP. (Technique3): Specify finely subdivided arcs (arcstep=20) on a high-resolution globe (~2MB). (Technique4): Support VRML interaction by generating an OOGL file using edge2gv, then using oogl2vrml converter. Key Visualization Mappings: (Mapping1): Color distinguishes ISPs. (MCI=red, Sprintlink=cyan, NASA=blue, ESnet=green, Dartnet=magenta, BBNPlanet=yellow, ANS=white, all other ISPs= black. (Mapping2): Major providers are shown by thick lines, all other providers are drawn as thin black lines. (Mapping3): Position of hosts is based on latitude and longitude information in the NDP file. Visualization Tools: (Tool1): tunnel2edge.perl (converts mrinfo to NDP format) (Tool2): hostresolve.perl, trim_bidirect (add lat/long) (Tool3): edge2gv (calculate arcs and gen .oogl file, then convert to .wrl) (Tool4): grouper (assigns geom tags such as color based on edge file tags) and linegrouper (same but works across multiple records.) (Tool5): WebOOGL/Geomview system (highlight coloring, linewidth selection, manual tweaking, and animations of mbone tunnel growth)
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