A syntax and semantics for network diagrams

Abstract

Research concerning the automated design of network diagrams is reported. A formulation of syntax and semantics for network diagrams that is used in the Automated Network Diagram Designer (ANDD) system is presented. The syntactic formulation differs from previous work in two significant ways: perceptual-organization phenomena are explicitly represented, and syntax is described in terms of constraints rather than as a grammar of term-rewriting rules. The semantic formulation is based on an application-independent model of network systems that can be used to model many applications. Examples that show how these concepts are used by ANDD to automatically design network diagrams are included.<>