Network situational awareness: A representative study

Abstract

Recent developments in visualization techniques for network monitoring and analysis have advanced dramatically over the simple topological graphs and color-coded textual representations found in early systems. These developments are employed in network visualization systems that attempt to present a complete and coherent view of the traffic on a network and the possible security events that may occur. In this paper we describe several representative integrated network visualization systems and discuss the network status and security questions they answer. We then describe an organizational approach to categorizing visualization systems and provide examples of each. We discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each approach and conclude with a proposal for two directions for next-generation systems.