Visualisation of Large and Complex Networks Using PolyPlane

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. This research has been supported by a SESQUI grant from the University of Sydney, a research grant from the School of Information Technologies, Special Study Leave Program of the University of Sydney, and NICTA Summer Vacation Scholarship. Animated drawings are available from http://www.cs.usyd.edu.au/~shhong/3dtreedraw.htm. National ICT Australia is funded by the Australian Governmentrsquos Backing Australiarsquos Ability initiative, in part through the Australian Research Council