Project Proposal

Project Background/Summary

Monitoring network traffic has always been an important issue of managing and protecting data as it is passed around electronically, but there is a lack of defining visualization possibilities which could greatly help monitor general activity. Services such as WireShark aid in capturing network activity but don't provide convenient illustration of said activity.

The goal of the project is to construct an interactive visual simulation of network activity based on imported data using Dshell or similar framework. The simulation will be a real-time playback of all network activity which can be adjusted based on aspects such as time frame and playback speed. Nodes and connections are also interactive and can be highlighted or adjusted by the user for customization and clarity.

This visualization will be constructed using the Processing language and will be exported as a web application or an external application.

Research

Research that will need to be done includes a development of my own understanding of network traffic and activity as well as what information is to be tracked when developing this visualization. Outside of background knowledge of networking, a design of clarity and preferable simplicity will need to be designed to ensure the project produces a most desirable application.

Objectives

• Produce a visualization application which can be used to view and analyze network activity, potentially real-time.
• Visualization will be interactive, having aspects which can be adjusted and customized to fit the purpose of each individual analysis.
• Visualization will be informative, as the convenience and visual appeal of the simulation should not restrain the information the data is meant to present.
• Visualization should have clarity in its presentation and be easily readable for analytical purposes.