Visualisation of large and complex networks using PolyPlane

Abstract

This paper discusses a new method for visualisation of large and complex networks in three dimensions. In particular, we focus on visualising the core tree structure of the large and complex network. The algorithm uses the concept of subplanes, where a set of subtrees is laid out. The subplanes are defined using regular polytopes for easy navigation. The algorithm can be implemented to run in linear time. We implemented the algorithm and the experimental results show that it produces nice layouts of large trees with up to ten thousand nodes. We further discuss how to extend this method for more general case. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2004.