Network Simulator - 3

Abstract
Ns-3 is a widely used network simulator for research. It contains many well tested and high
quality network models. Most of the application layer models present in ns-3 are not well suited
to simulate real life environment. There is a huge gap between the results of these models and
actual experiments. Our work tries to build an application layer model in ns-3 which is well
suited to simulate real life environment and easy to use. One way to bridge the gap between
actual and simulated results is to use network traces. Trace file of a network contains information
about the behavior of the network during the capture time. This information, such as think time
of client, number of connections or number of upload bytes, can be used during the simulation to
produce very realistic results. The existing application layer models in ns-3 are simply a way to
send traffic data from one point to another and user does not have much control over how and
when the data is send. There are many other shortcomings of present application layer models
which are described in the report. Trace-replay tries to overcome the shortcomings of present
models by using the input trace file to extract information and replay them during simulation.
Using trace-replay many real life network scenario can be replayed in ns-3. Trace-replay only
extracts non-wireless information from the trace file that are independent of the network
condition. This information are constant irrespective of the number of clients and reflect
behavior of the users. Therefore replaying them during simulation is safe and does not affect the
protocol or scenario which is being tested. Through various experiments report shows that results
of trace-replay is much closer to actual experiments than other application layer models.
About the Training

A Mobile ad-hoc network (MANET) is a self configuring, temporary network set up of mobile
devices (or nodes) connected by wireless links without any infrastructure. These nodes have
dynamic topology. In order to facilitate communication within the network, different routing
protocols are used, viz., Proactive, Reactive and Hybrid. There are many existing simulators like
NS2, Qualnet and OMNET. Network Simulator-3 is the latest freeware and discrete event
network simulator, targeted primarily for research. The course on Network Simulator-3 deals
with aspects like creating nodes in networks, interactions between nodes and use of various
protocols. Trace analysis, Wireshark, Animators are also discussed.

Motivation

The main objective of this workshop is to get acquainted with the recent advances in Network
Simulator and to stimulate faculty to do research in this area.

Course Outcome

This course provides the foundation education in electronic circuit analysis and design. Through lecture,
laboratory, and out-of-class assignments, students are provided learning experiences that enable them to:
Correlates to program outcome

1. Familiarization of Lan-T trainer kit Terminology and able to analysis the transfer of packets.

2. Become proficient with networks (eg., LAN-T trainer kit and netsim)

3. To analyse the transfer of packets

4. To Create and analyze the network traffic between two systems