Sorry, the Cybergeography Research web pages are no longer being updated. The project ran from 1997-2004, but my research has moved away into other areas (see my blog for latest). If you have any questions or comments, please email me at: m.dodge (at) manchester.ac.uk. 

Cheers, Martin Dodge, February 2007.

| Introduction | Whats New | Conceptual | Artistic | Geographic | Cables & Satellites | Traceroutes |
| Census | Topology | Info Maps | Info Landscapes | Info Spaces | ISP Maps | Weather Maps |
| Wireless | Web Site Maps | Surf Maps | MUDs & Virtual Worlds | Historical |


Topology Maps of Elements of Cyberspace (page 1)

A screenshot of a 3D model of the vBNS network which connects universities and laboratories in the USA. The model was created by Jeff Brown, a researcher at MOAT, National Laboratory for Applied Network Research (NLANR), USA, using his Cichlid data visualisation software. The model is animated to show how traffic flows over the links.

More information on their work can be found in the paper "Network Performance Visualization: Insight Through Animation" by J.A. Brown, McGregor A.J and H-W Braun.

Cichlid vBNS model - click for larger image

 

Walrus - click for larger image
Walrus - click for larger image

 

These striking images are 3D hyperbolic graphs of Internet topology. They are created using the Walrus visualisation tool developed by Young Hyun at the Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis (CAIDA).

The underlying data on the topological structure of the Internet is gathered by skitter, a CAIDA tool for large-scale collection and analysis of Internet traffic path data.

Lumeta map - click for larger image

This large graph shows the router level connectivity of the Internet as measured by Hal Burch and Bill Cheswick's Internet Mapping Project.

The work is being commercially developed by Lumeta.

Lumeta are developing network measurement and mapping tools for analysing large corporate intranets. This graph part of this graph show the portion of a corporate intranet that are 'leaking' with the Internet.

 

For more information see the article "What Can You Do With traceroute?" by Steve Branigan, Hal Burch, Bill Cheswick, and Frank Wojcik, Internet Computing, Sept./Oct. 2001.

 

AS Network visualization - click for larger image

A graph visualisation showing the topology of the core of the Internet from mid-January 2000.

A version of this image is available to buy as a large wall poster.

It reveals the peering relations and geographic locations of Autonomous Systems (ASes), which are a vital part of Internet infrastructure that represent large ISP networks for the complex routing of traffic flows. It was created by researchers at CAIDA as part of their skitter project.

 

Spamdemic Map - click for larger version

Here is a detailed organisational chart, the Spamdemic Map, showing the complex web of connections in the email marketing industry. The chart looks very much like a circuit diagram. It was created by Bob West, CluelessMailers.org.

 

A topology map of a core network of a medium-sized ISP. It was created using an automatic network discovery tool called Mercator developed as part of the Scan project by Ramesh Govindan, Anoop Reddy and colleagues, at the Information Sciences Institute, USA.

Scan map - click for larger image

 

Netscan Crosspost - click for larger image

 

Netscan is an ambitious project analysing the social structure of Usenet news. It is being developed by Marc Smith, a research sociologist at Microsoft Research.

The example opposite is a screenshot of the Crosspost Visualization tool of Netscan which enables you to analyse the connections between newsgroups. While the image below shows the Netscan Dashboard visualisation tool which is used to explore the detailed structure of individual message threads.

[For more information see the Map of Month article, "Netscan Project: Mapping the Social Geography of Usenet News".]

Netscan Dashboard - click for larger image



click for larger image click for larger image

click for larger image

These stills are taken from a video developed by k.c. claffy of the Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis (CAIDA) and Hans-Werner Braun of the Measurement & operations Analysis Team (MOAT) at NLANR showing the interconnections of major ISP networks. To see all the glorious details you are recommended to download the whole video.



SuperJANET - click for larger image


The evolving topology of SuperJANET, the high-speed academic network in the UK. The map above left shows the ATM network circa September 1996, while the map on the right is a schematic map of the backbone topology of SuperJANET III from early 1998.

The topology map below shows the new SuperJANET4 backbone, as of March 2001.

SuperJANET4 topology - click for larger version

 

This is a graph representation of the social relationships inside a textual virtual space. The data is conversations between players in the MUD LambaMOO as observed and measured by the software bot called Cobot.

Each node in the graph is a single player and the colour coding shows their style of communications in terms of speech and actions. The links show which other player they are most connected to in terms of observed interactions.

Cobot was developed by Charles Isbell and Michael Kearns.

 


Go to topology maps page 2 for more examples

| Introduction | Whats New | Conceptual | Artistic | Geographic | Cables & Satellites | Traceroutes |
| Census | Topology | Info Maps | Info Landscapes | Info Spaces | ISP Maps | Weather Maps |
| Wireless | Web Site Maps | Surf Maps | MUDs & Virtual Worlds | Historical |

Sorry, the Cybergeography Research web pages are no longer being updated. The project ran from 1997-2004, but my research has moved away into other areas (see my blog for latest). If you have any questions or comments, please email me at: m.dodge (at) manchester.ac.uk. 

Cheers, Martin Dodge, February 2007.

(© Copyright - Martin Dodge, 2007)