Visual interactive creation of geo-located networks

Nodes in real world networks often have a geographic position. In many cases such as for simulation or optimization, there is a need for non-trivial synthetic geo-located networks. As synthetic datasets are required to have specific properties such as connectivity and geographic distribution, often networks need to be generated. However, their creation is cumbersome if done purely by hand, and inflexible if done fully automated. Here, we present a framework for creating artificial geographic located networks in a visually interactive way. We designed our framework with the what-you-see-is-what-you-get principle in mind, i.e. showing the (intermediate) results of the interactive creation process at any time and allowing the user to adjust the network iteratively. This design allows our system to be also used as a simple viewer for networks that have incomplete location information. Our approach consists of two steps: (1) Creating the network topology and (2) assigning locations to its nodes. Our half automatic system enables the user to easily set the location of the nodes to predefined areas like countries, states, and urban regions, while still being able to flexibly and interactively control the creation process. We show the utility of our system by creating a real-world-like geo-located network.