Visualisation of power-law network topologies

Abstract

We present a novel graph layout algorithm called ODL for visualising large network topologies. The main contribution of our algorithm is to simplify the layout problem by separating the nodes in the network into multiple hierarchical layers based on the outdegree of each node. Our algorithm is designed to exploit the underlying structure of power-law topologies, which occur in a wide variety of practical network applications. However, the use of our algorithms is not limited to this class of networks. We have demonstrated that our algorithm can generate useful and aesthetically pleasing layouts for a wide variety of networks, including both regular and power-law topologies. In particular, our algorithm achieved substantial performance improvements over existing layout techniques, including a speed-up factor of up to 260 on real-life Internet routing topologies.