Thank you for looking at VisiDisplay. Here are brief instructions for using the VisiDisplay applet. VisiDisplay is a prototype application for displaying the physical and virtual topology of IP/ATM networks. You have a fair degree of control over what is displayed and how it appears. You will see the ATM switches and hosts that make up the network, along with the physical and virtual connections between them.
VisiDisplay displays a view of a network from data gathered by a collection process. The data displayed in this demonstration come from a collection process that is running at a Beta test site.
To run VisiDisplay, click on the link at the bottom of the page. Visidislay will open a separate applet window and automatically made a connection to the data collection process (it may take some time for the network elements to appear). If the connection is lost for some reason, you can restore it by clicking on "File" on the menu bar, then selecting "Connect ...". Use the default host and port values that appear in the connect window. The applet is only allowed to connect to www.msci.magic.net, where it originated.
You can get information about a switch, host, or VCC by placing the cursor on it (the cursor will change from an arrow to a pointing finger) and clicking the mouse. A window with information about the node or VCC will appear; it will disappear when you click on the "OK" button. Clicking on a VCC may bring up multiple VCC information viewers; this is because VCCs can be displayed on top of each other.
There are four ways of controlling the display: by moving switches or hosts, by choosing the positioning mode, by using areas, and by changing the view settings.
You can move switches or hosts by clicking and dragging them. They will remain where you drop them until VisiDisplay repositions them (more on this below).
You can set the positioning mode by clicking on "Configuration" on the menu bar, then setting the "Automatic positioning" checkbox. When automatic positioning is off, VisiDisplay chooses positions for the ATM switches and hosts in the network. It repositions them whenever there is a change to the size, location, or content of an area (more about areas below). This means that switches and hosts will spontaneously rearrange themselves at times. For example, when VisiDisplay is informed about a newly-discovered host or switch, it will rearrange the display to make room for the new node. This can be frustrating at times, because you might drag a few hosts to new locations on the screen to get a better view, only to have them pop back to their old positions.
When automatic positioning is off, hosts and switches stay where they are, or where you put them. The tradeoff is that newly-discovered hosts won't be displayed, because VisiDisplay doesn't know where they should go. The author recommends using automatic positioning most of the time, but turning it off when all the network nodes are visible or when you want to shuffle things around for a better look at them.
Areas are rectangular regions that you can define to let VisiDisplay know where you want things displayed. If you drag a switch into an area, it will stay in the area, and the hosts that are attached to it will stay with it. You can create an area named "Default" to hold switches which haven't been assigned to another area; if there is no default area, they will appear in the background of the window. Of course, when automatic positioning is off, you can put switches and hosts wherever you like and they'll stay there.
You can move an area by clicking and dragging it. You can resize an area by clicking in it to select it, then dragging one of the resize blocks. The Configuration menu allows for creating, deleting, and renaming areas. When VisiDisplay is running as a Java application, you can save the configuration you create; however, when VisiDisplay is running as an applet, as it is now, you cannot.
The view settings allow you to choose which network elements appear on the display. You can change them by clicking on "View" on the menu bar, then selecting "Set up view ...". You can change a number of display parameters, including whether switch and host names are displayed, which VCCs are displayed and how they are colored, etc.
If VisiDisplay appears hung, a look at your browser's Java console is in order. If exceptions or error messages appear there, please paste them into an email message and send it to John Cavanaugh.
The following demonstration is available:
[Advanced Networking Grou p Home]
http://www.msci.magic.net/VisiBeta/VisiDisplay.html
Updated: 2000-11-08