S-Net: A Software System for Analyzing Packet Header Databases

S-Net is a software system designed for analyzing large databases of Internet packet headers. S-Net runs on Unix, and analysis is carried out using the S language for visualization and data analysis. There are three goals in its design: (1) to allow, despite the large size of databases, comprehensive analysis -- detailed analysis down to the level of individual observations, together with analysis by summaries of behavior that aggregate many observations (2) to provide an extensible environment so that analysts can readily tailor methods to the specific objectives of their analyses; and (3) to provide an implementation based on public domain software, making S-Net readily accessible to network researchers. S-Net is available at http://cm.bell-labs.com/stat/InternetTraffic/S-Net.