December 15, 2006, 10:27 am
Map of the Internet
By Lisa Agustin
The latest approach to visualizing the Internet space comes from former NASA researcher and sometime cartoonist Randall Munroe.
Munroe uses the Hilbert Curve fractal to preserve IP address grouping, showing how any consecutive string of IP addresses will translate into a single region on the “map.” Supporting comments on the visualization indicate that “the upper left section shows blocks of IP addresses sold to corporations and governments before the 1990′s before the RIRs [Regional Internet Registries] took over allocation.” It would be interesting to see how adding a dimension for time might affect the diagram. For more detail on his approach, check out the related blog entry.
