Network Analysis System with User-Configurable Message Visualizations
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional network analysis tools face challenges in accommodating diverse user needs and preferences, leading to increased development costs and complexity, as they struggle to provide customizable displays and user-defined visualizations for message characteristics and labeling.
Innovation Solution
A network analysis system that allows users to define display formats, message characteristics, and labeling options through user-configurable visualizations, enabling customization of message displays and augmenting them with user-defined programs for message discrimination and labeling.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If conventional network analysis tools provide fixed display formats to satisfy majority user needs, then ease of operation is improved, but adaptability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system allows users to dynamically configure display formats by selecting different visualization types (timeline, tree, table) and customizing message characteristics through a configuration interface. The display can be adapted in real-time to different user needs without requiring development intervention, making the system both easy to operate and highly adaptable.
Solution Approach 2:
The network analysis tool provides multiple display formats and visualization types that can handle diverse message characteristics. A single system can serve multiple user groups with different requirements by switching between timeline views for temporal analysis, tree views for hierarchical structure, and table views for detailed data, achieving universality across different use cases.
2Adaptability or versatility
If network analysis tools are customized to satisfy diverse user requirements, then adaptability is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments message characteristics into selectable categories (temporal, spatial, protocol-specific) that can be independently configured. Users can choose which characteristics to display without affecting the core system architecture, allowing adaptability while maintaining manageable complexity through modular configuration options.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a configuration interface and processing layer that mediates between user requirements and the underlying analysis engine. This intermediary layer handles the complexity of customization by providing a standardized method for users to define message characteristics and display preferences without requiring changes to the core system.
3Adaptability or versatility
If developers anticipate needs of all potential users to provide comprehensive display formats, then adaptability is improved, but manufacturing precision deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables users to self-configure display formats and select message characteristics relevant to their specific needs. Rather than requiring developers to anticipate and pre-configure all possible user requirements, users independently tailor the display to their preferences, maintaining manufacturing precision while achieving comprehensive adaptability.
4Ease of manufacture
If fixed display formats are used to reduce development costs, then ease of manufacture is improved, but adaptability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system allows users to change display parameters such as visualization type, message characteristics, and labeling options without requiring development resources. By implementing configurable parameters that can be adjusted at runtime, the system maintains ease of manufacture while providing extensive adaptability through user-controlled parameter modification.
Data Source
AI summary
A network analysis system provides for a user-definable display of information related to messages communicated on the network. The network analysis system includes one or more display formats that provide a display of message exchanges between nodes of a network, and a display augmenter that provides additional information on the display based on a user-defined visualization. The user defined visualization includes augmenting the display based on user-defined coloring characteristics and/or augmenting the display with user-defined labels. To further facilitate user control of the augmentation of the display, the system accepts user-defined programs for discriminating among messages, for controlling the labeling of messages, and for controlling the coloring of messages and labels. Commonly used user-defined characteristics and labels are stored in a library, for use via a selection from among the library entries.