HintVis: The Hierarchical Visualization of Network Traffic Data

The network traffic data is interpreted differently by people in different sectors. This paper proposes a framework for hierarchically visualizing the network traffic data, and customizes a set of the classic approaches or algorithms to produce visualizations in different levels. Based on the framework, we developed a prototype system Hint Vis to support analyzing network traffic data in different levels by constructing layered semantic network traffic objects and producing hierarchical visualizations. The usability of Hint Vis is demonstrated by visualizing packets going through the gateway in a LAN. Depending on the hierarchical visualizations, analysts are able to semantically navigate in the network traffic data and concentrate on what they need.