DUALQUEST - REAL-TIME BIFOCAL NETWORK VISUALIZATION SYSTEM

Most current management systems employ graphic-user-interface displays to visualize the networks being managed. Some networks are so large t hat it is difficult to display all network elements in a single window alone, and therefore, the hierarchical multi-window style presentatio n is commonly used. This form of presentation has disadvantages, howev er, including the fact that window manipulations are complex. Our appr oach (bifocal network visualization) is able to display both the conte xt and any detail of a network within a single window, and overcomes t he disadvantages of hierarchical multi-window presentation. We impleme nted this bifocal network visualization on a workstation using a frame buffer memory [1] called DUALQUEST that is able to generate images in real-time and is simple to operate. This paper describes bifocal netw ork visualization and its implementation. Furthermore, we present an e xperiment to compare our interface with conventional hierarchical mult i-window presentation.