9. A test and measurement instrument for displaying data, comprising: an acquisition system configured to receive an input signal, the input signal being a communications signal; a processor coupled to the acquisition system and configured to extract protocol-specific information from said received signal, and generate therefrom a symbolic representation of protocol-specific information within the input signal; and a user interface coupled to the processor for receiving user-entered data; and a display device configured to display symbols of the symbolic representation; wherein each symbol of the symbolic representation is a graphical symbol and is a polygon; and wherein a first dimension of the symbols of the symbolic representation differentiates protocol layers, the greatest distance corresponding to a highest protocol layer in the packet; and a second dimension of the symbols indicates packet length: and a symbol manipulation interface configured to adjust the symbolic representation in response to a user input; said symbol manipulation interface creating packet symbols for packets within the protocol specific information; and aligning packet symbols associated with a first link with packet symbols associated with a second link such that substantially similar times represented in both packet symbols of the first link and packet symbols of the second link correspond to a same point along an axis in the symbolic representation.
9. A test and measurement instrument for displaying data, comprising: an acquisition system configured to receive an input signal, the input signal being a communications signal; a processor coupled to the acquisition system and configured to extract protocol-specific information from said received signal, and generate therefrom a symbolic representation of protocol-specific information within the input signal; and a user interface coupled to the processor for receiving user-entered data; and a display device configured to display symbols of the symbolic representation; wherein each symbol of the symbolic representation is a graphical symbol and is a polygon; and wherein a first dimension of the symbols of the symbolic representation differentiates protocol layers, the greatest distance corresponding to a highest protocol layer in the packet; and a second dimension of the symbols indicates packet length: and a symbol manipulation interface configured to adjust the symbolic representation in response to a user input; said symbol manipulation interface creating packet symbols for packets within the protocol specific information; and aligning packet symbols associated with a first link with packet symbols associated with a second link such that substantially similar times represented in both packet symbols of the first link and packet symbols of the second link correspond to a same point along an axis in the symbolic representation. 11. The test and measurement instrument of claim 9 , further comprising: a compression interface configured to adjust distances representing interstitial data of the protocol-specific information in response to a user input.