A topology visualisation tool for National Research and Education Networks in Africa

Previous research on National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) in Africa has shown high latency in traffic exchanged between networks, with 75% of this traffic taking circuitous routes through Europe. This paper presents a user-centered creation of a geospatial visualisation tool that can be used to show the network structure of African NRENs, using Traceroute as a method for network topology discovery. The visualisation tool allows multiple Traceroutes for a single IP address to be viewed on a map from various vantage points. The tool's effectiveness and accuracy at communicating the logical network topology of African NRENs and routes of traffic traversal was assessed. Results from usability tests showed that the tool was able to effectively and accurately communicate the logical topology on a country and continental level with over 68% of visual queries having been answered successfully.