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Skitter Represents Web Performance Visually

posted by Editor on Monday October 15, @08:10AM

Skitter is a tool that probes the Internet in order to analyze topology and performance. It measures forward IP paths by recording each hop from a source to many destinations, and by incrementing the "time to live" (TTL) of each IP packet header and recording replies from each router (or hop) leading to the destination host. It also measures round trip time by collecting round trip time (RTT) along with path (hop) data. Skitter’s data can be used to visualize the directed graph from a source to much of the Internet. The data results in a spanning tree structure originating at the polling host and extending into the infrastructure toward the destination hosts in the polling set. The data is then aggregated into a centralized database for correlation and depiction as a top-down, macroscopic view of a cross-section of the Internet from at least a small set of sources. The skitter code can be downloaded here, and here are some screenshots.

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kinda cool (Score:1)

by BHearsum on Monday October 15, @10:01AM EST (#1)
(User #108 Info) http://www.buyoem.ca

this is a kinda cool idea, reminds me of the Map of the Internet that thinkgeek.com sells.
__________________________________________________ __________ Buyoem Canada - Your Only Canadian Internet Superstore

3D hyperbolic trees = OK (Score:0)

by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 15, @11:28AM EST (#2)

Abstract 3D interfaces are usually useless.

Hyperbolic trees are usually useless.

Yet 3D hyperbolic trees seem useful.

Does anyone else feel this paradox? Why does adding a third dimension help hyperbolic trees so much? Is it because you're projecting the leaves onto a 2D space (sphere) rather than a 1D space (circle)?

Also, has anyone had experience navigating an interactive 3D hyperbolic tree? I'm curious how easy that is.

Re:3D hyperbolic trees = OK (Score:1)

by munzner on Monday October 15, @02:36PM EST (#3)
(User #128 Info) http://graphics.stanford.edu/~munzner

> Also, has anyone had experience navigating an interactive 3D hyperbolic tree? I'm curious how easy that is.

You can try it for yourself, the H3/hypviewer code is downloadable for free for noncommercial use.

There are binaries for Irix and Windows, and the source should compile on any box that has OpenGL/Mesa.

> Why does adding a third dimension help hyperbolic trees so much? Is it because you're projecting the leaves onto a 2D space (sphere) rather than a 1D space (circle)?

I'm hardly an unbiased source, since I'm the one who came up with 3D hyperbolic trees. If you're interested in an extended rant on this topic, I do go on at length about it in my dissertation. The most relevant bit is section 3.4.1.3 on Information Density.

Tamara Munzner

I'm not a robot like you. I don't like having disks crammed into me... unless they're Oreos, and then only in the mouth. -- Fry