Patent ID: 6166742
Filing Date: 2000-12-26
Classification: G06T,H04L

Abstract:
In a network comprising multiple switching nodes interconnected by multiple transmission paths between and among said nodes, said network further comprising:network operational data monitoring means connected to said nodes and paths for collecting network operational data;a computer controller connected to said monitoring means;a set of software instructions running on said computer controller for converting said network operational data to 3-dimensional representations of selected characteristics of said network operational data;said instructions including code for executing a process of volume rendering using volume ray casting in which said process includes creating an original volume of sample voxels and 3-dimensional discrete wavelet transforms with coefficients; anda screen monitor for displaying said selected characteristics of said network operational data;a process executed in said computer controller for reducing the time needed to create said 3-dimensional representations, CHARACTERIZED IN THAT: said software instructions contain code for accelerating said volume ray casting by creating a variable sampling distance to look for data points along each said ray, said code executing the steps of:applying said 3-dimensional discrete wavelet transforms to said original volume;setting a user-defined error bound e;precomputing an index volume having the same resolution as said original volume according to said error bound e;""calculating the spatial-frequency locality of said wavelet coefficient;""using maximum local frequency, set said sampling distances by computing discrete sampling distances for said voxels by comparing the magnitude of the wavelet coefficient affecting each said voxel with said error bound e;attaching at each voxel of said original volume said computed discrete sampling distance;performing volume ray casting calculations on said original volume data set with repeated iterations using said voxel-specific variable sampling distances attached to said index volume; andcreating from the results of said iterations a representation of a 3-dimensional image of said selected network operational data characteristics.