As part of a broader organisational restructure, data networking research at Swinburne University of Technology has moved from the Centre for Advanced Internet Architecture (CAIA) to the Internet For Things (I4T) Research Lab.

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LCMON 1.1 - Detailed images

By Carl Javier (CAIA winter intern, 2007)

Detailed images and examples

Additional images and examples of the LCMON 1.1 user interface are provided here.
When LCMON clients connect, the 3D stars may rotate, bounce, change colour and size depending on a number of state variables (such as CPU load, memory usage, and network traffic in/out of the associated cluster node). This section describes what each action represents for the cluster nodes.

Rotational rate and colour = CPU Load (%) of each cluster node:
  • The entities rotate according to the CPU utilisation. A faster rate of rotation indicates higher CPU usage, conversely a lower rotation rate indicates lower CPU utilisation. .
  • The entities will also change colour to reflect CPU usage. Some examples have been shown below:

0%
1 - 25 % 26 - 50% 51 - 75 % 76 - 100 %

Scale size
= Memory Usage (%) of each cluster node:

The size of the entities reflects the memory usage in the cluster nodes The size difference is demonstrated below. The node on the left has low memory consumption while the star on the right has high memory usage

3D Stars representing cluster memory use.

Bounce height
= Aggregate network traffic entering and leaving interface (PPS)

3D stars may bounce up and down on the spot. How high they jump represents how many packets per second are entering and leaving the network interface of the cluster nodes.
Note: The number of packets per second is mapped to a logorithmic bounce height scale to avoid 3D star models from bouncing ridiculously high.

Snapshot of 3D Stars bouncing on the spot. Bouncing represents aggregate inbound and outbound network traffic in packets/sec.

Inspecting cluster node details

Quantitative details regarding each cluster node can be obtained in one of two ways.
  • Flying up to a star. Figure 1 illustrates how state information about each cluster node will appear floating in front of the star when you are close enough. (The virtual environment shipped with LCMON 1.1 allows you to potentially be 'close enough' to multiple stars at the same time as you fly around.)
  • Use the 'inspector' tool. Inspection involves shooting a star (in reality, shooting an region of space a few pixels beneath the star - Figure 2). An information screen box will pop up giving more detail about the cluster node being represented by the 3D star model (Figure 3). You will need to then press "OK" on the information screen to resume flying around the virtual world.
Figure 1: Close up inspection by flying towards a 3D star representing a cluster node

     
Figure 2: Inspector tool being used to view a specific cluster.
Figure 3: Cluster node information presented after shooting with the inspector tool.

(Note: The 'inspector tool' is only one of a number of techniques supported by L3DGEWorld 2.2 for interacting with in-world entities. LCMON 1.1 restricts you to only use the gun that allows inspection of in-world entity state. Other systems based on L3DGEWorld 2.2 may utilise different types of 'guns' to initiate additional in-world interactions.)

Multiple users in-world at the same time

LCMON 1.1 allows more than one user to exist within the virtual world at the same time.  Other users will perceive you as a humanoid character flying around the virtual world, armed with an electric beam weapon. You will perceive them in the same manner. Figure 4 shows a player using their inspector tool on a star.

Figure 4: Another user in-world is shooting their 'inspector tool'

(Note: The appearance of other users, their weapons, and their weapons shooting, is configurable if you know how to create Quake III Arena player models. Discussion of precisely how to achieve this is beyond the scope of this web page.)

Go back to the LCMON project main page


Last Updated: Thursday 29-Nov-2007 17:21:57 AEDT | No longer maintained. Pre-2018 was maintained and authorised by Grenville Armitage, garmitage@swin.edu.au