A novel display for situational awareness at a network operations center

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new visual display system for network operations centers that consolidates data, identifies issues, and supports team coordination to enhance network management and situational awareness.

Contribution

It presents a novel design for a network situational awareness display that visually integrates data, highlights problems, and aids in prioritization and mitigation coordination.

Findings

Improves problem identification and prioritization in network management.

Enhances team coordination during network incident response.

Facilitates understanding of network issues and resource utilization.

Abstract

As modern industry shifts toward significant globalization, robust and adaptable network capability is increasingly vital to the success of business enterprises. Large quantities of information must be distilled and presented in a single integrated picture in order to maintain the health, security and performance of global networks. We present a design for a network situational awareness display that visually aggregates large quantities of data, identifies problems in a network, assesses their impact on critical company mission areas and clarifies the utilization of resources. This display facilitates the prioritization of network problems as they arise by explicitly depicting how problems interrelate. It also serves to coordinate mitigation strategies with members of a team.