US Patent 7873920 Methods and systems for displaying network information

Methods and systems for displaying a network structure using force-directed layout are provided. The network includes a plurality of nodes, each node including an associated slack parameter having a value. The method including selecting a central time-directed axis, positioning each network node along the axis using the associated slack parameter value of the network node to determine a distance from the central time-directed axis, and applying force-directed computations to sets of concurrent nodes.