1. A method of analyzing and displaying protocol-specific data for use in a test and measurement instrument, comprising: receiving communications data from a system under test using an acquisition system of the test and measurement instrument; extracting protocol-specific information from the communications data using a processor; converting said protocol-specific information into a symbolic representation using the processor; and displaying the symbolic representation on a display device; wherein each symbol of the symbolic representation is a graphical symbol and is a polygon; and a first dimension of the graphical symbols of the symbolic representation differentiates protocol layers; wherein each protocol layer is represented by a different distance along the first dimension, the greatest distance corresponding to a highest protocol layer in the packet; and wherein the packet symbol has a distance in a second dimension according to a length of the packet; and further comprising: reducing a first distance along a time axis in the symbolic representation corresponding to interstitial data in a first direction of a link and a second distance along the time axis in the symbolic representation corresponding to interstitial data in a second direction of the link where the first distance overlaps the second distance.