Qualnet Tutorial

Scalable Network Technologies

with contributions by
Chaiporn Jaikaeo and Chien-Chung Shen
University of Delaware

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 Outline
„ QualNet Overview: slides 3-10
„ Installation: slides 11-16
„ Simulation Architecture: slides 17-20
„ Wireless Experiment Design (both command line
and GUI): slides 21-46
„ Animator Execution (demo): slides 47-52
„ Analyzer: slides 53-59
„ Resources: slide 60

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 Advantages of QualNet
„ Rapid prototyping of protocols
„ Comparative performance evaluation of
alternative protocols at each layer
„ Built-in measurements on each layer
„ Modular, layered stack design
„ Standard API for composition of protocols across
different layers
„ Scalability via support for parallel execution
„ GUI Tools for system/protocol modeling

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 Genesis: GloMoSim, DARPA funded effort at UCLA (‘97 – ‘00)
for efficient simulation of large heterogeneous networks
UAV Network
How does the network perform as it is
scaled to 10000+ heterogeneous devices?

Heterogeneous
devices &
networks
Mobile Ad Hoc
Networks

Satellite Comm Which routing

algorithm?

DARPA Objective: Large Heterogeneous Network Simulation

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 QualNet
„ Commercial derivative of GloMoSim
„ Substantially expanded MANET models:
„ AODV, DSR, OLSR, 802.11 DCF, 802.11 PCF, 802.11a,

directional antennas, …
„ Rapid GUI-based model design, animation & analysis

„ High-fidelity commercial protocol & device models

„ Analysis:
„ Comparative performance evaluation of alternative protocols at

each layer
„ Built-in measurements on each layer

„ Modular, layered stack design

„ Scalability via support for parallel execution

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 QualNet Versatility
„ GloMoSim was designed for MANET
„ QualNet supports a wider range of networks and
analysis
„ MANET
„ QoS
„ Wired Networks
„ Satellite
„ Cellular
„ This presentation focuses on QualNet’s MANET
features
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 QualNet Model Library
„ MANET
„ 802.11a, 802.11b, CSMA, MACA, AODV, DSR, LAR1, STAR,
ODMRP, ZRP, FSR, OLSR, directional antenna
„ QoS
„ WFQ, WRR, SCFQ, CBQ, QoSPF, diffserv, RED, RIO, WRED,
RSVP-TE
„ Wired Networks
„ OSPF, BGP, router configuration, IGRP, EIGRP, HSRP, import of
LAN configuration
„ Satellite
„ Geo-stationary
„ Cellular
„ GSM

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 QualNet Layer Model
Data Plane
„ Uses an architecture that is similar to
one used in physical networks with CBR, ftp, telnet, …
well-defined APIs between Application
neighboring layers
TCP, UDP, RSVP
„ Provides capability for network Transport
emulation by supporting direct code
migration between the model and IP
operational networks. IP
OSPF, AODV, …
„ Protocols interface with a well- Network
defined API defining interactions
between layers immediately above Packet Store/Forward
Link Layer
and below its own IEEE 802.11, 802.3, …
MAC Layer
The unit defining the interaction is Radio, bus, point-point...
„
Physical
the Message, which is generally
either a Packet or a Timer wired Free space, TIREM

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 QualNet Developer Toolkit
ƒ Animator: Graphical
experiment set up &
animation tool

ƒ Designer: Graphical, finite

state machine-based
custom protocol design tool
ƒ Analyzer: Statistical
graphing tool for built-in
and custom statistics
collection
ƒ Tracer: Packet level tracing
& visualization tool.
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 QualNet Directory Structure
„ /addons optional packages
„ /application application layer protocols and traffic generators
„ /bin executable and configuration or input/output files
„ /data storage for sample files, e.g. modulation and terrain
„ /gui the Graphical User Interface (GUI)
„ /include common include files
„ /mac code for the mac layer protocols
„ /main the basic design framework/Makefiles
„ /mobility the code for mobility models
„ /network code for the network layer and routing protocols
„ /phy wireless physical and propagation models
„ /tcplib trace based TCP applications (FTP, TELNET, HTTP)
„ /transport transport layer protocols (TCP/UDP)
„ /verification Sample files and outputs

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 Installation
„ Prerequisites
„ C Compiler
„ Visual C++ 6.0 w/ SP5 on Windows
„ Must be configured to run from the command line.
„ gcc on Unix
„ Java version 1.3.
„ A QualNet license.

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 Program Environment
„ Define QUALNET_HOME and add GUI and path
„ On Unix (assuming csh or tcsh), add to .cshrc
„ setenv QUALNET_HOME ~/qualnet/3.6
„ set path=($path ~/qualnet/3.6/gui/bin)
„ On Windows
„ Right-click My Computer, choose Properties
„ Choose Advanced → Environment Variables
„ Add QUALNET_HOME with value C:\qualnet\3.6
„ Edit Path: add C:\qualnet\3.6\gui\bin
„ Click OK.

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 Compilation
„ On Windows
„ cd %QUALNET_HOME%\main
„ copy Makefile-windowsnt Makefile
„ nmake
„ On unix
„ cd $QUALNET_HOME/main
„ make -f Makefile-<osname>-<compiler>
„ (e.g. on Linux, make -f Makefile-linux-gcc-2.95)

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 Trial Run
„ Run the default experiment
„ cd C:\qualnet\3.6\bin
„ qualnet default.config
„ Examine the output
„ more default.stat

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 Animator
„ Start Animator by doing one of the following:
„ From a Command Prompt, type RunQualnet
„ Or … Click QualNet icon on desktop
„ Press Setup QualNet Parameters
„ Go to Wireless Settings tab

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 Animator Layout

Zoom Runtime Current

Control Control Simulation
Toolbar Time
Manual
Configuration
Toolbar

Animation Canvas
Settings
Toolbar

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Simulation Study Life Cycle
(Re)define (for Network Models)
Experiment(s)

Application Mobility Device Environment

(Traffic Specification Model(s) model
Generation)

Execute
Model Objective:
Accurate real-time analysis to enable
Collect dynamic management &
statistics reconfiguration of comm networks

Analyze
Results
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 Simulation Experiment Life Cycle
„ Startup
„ Read Input Files
„ Initialize Wireless Environment
„ Create/Initialize Nodes
„ Execution
„ Check for External Inputs (via HLA, etc.)
„ Execute Events
„ Shut down
„ Finalize Nodes
„ Produce Output Files

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 Node Life Cycle
„ Initialization
„ Bottom up layer initialization
„ Read Input Files
„ Event Handling
„ Creation
„ Scheduling
„ Handling
„ Finalization
„ Printing Statistics

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 Packet Life Cycle
Application Application

MESSAGE_Alloc(…) MESSAGE_Free(…)
MESSAGE_PacketAlloc(…)
MESSAGE_Send(…)

Transport Transport

MESSAGE_AddHeader(…) MESSAGE_RemoveHeader(…)
MESSAGE_Send(…) MESSAGE_Send(…)

Routing IP IP

MESSAGE_AddHeader(…) MESSAGE_RemoveHeader(…)
MESSAGE_Send(…) MESSAGE_Send(…)

MAC MAC

MESSAGE_AddHeader(…) MESSAGE_RemoveHeader(…)
MESSAGE_Send(…) MESSAGE_Send(…)

Physical Physical

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 Experiment Design & Analysis
„ Setting Global Variables
„ Simulation time & seed, coordinate system, terrain
„ Layer/Protocol related parameters:
„ Channel/Radio

„ Physical Layer

„ MAC Layer

„ Network Layer

„ Node placement & mobility

„ Specifying topology and configuring networks
„ Adding Traffic
„ Application setup
„ Running & Analyzing

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 Configuration Files
„ Line entry format:
[Qualifier] <PARAMETER>[Index] <VALUE>
„ Qualifier (optional) specifies a range of nodes and has precedence
over the general one
„ Similarly, the optional Index specifies an array of parameters, such as
priority queues.
„ E.g.
MOBILITY
MOBILITY NONENONE
[5
[5 thru
thru 10]
10] MOBILITY
MOBILITY RANDOM-WAYPOINT
RANDOM-WAYPOINT

„ Notes:
„ Some settings require additional parameters, e.g. MOBILITY
„ Lines starting with # are treated as comments

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 Qualifiers and Indices
„ Global Qualifier
MOBILITY NONE
„ Subnet Qualifier
[N8-2.0] MAC-PROTOCOL MACA
„ Node Qualifier
[5 thru 15] MOBILITY NONE
„ Index for an array of 3 priority queues
QUEUE-WEIGHT[0] 0.5
QUEUE-WEIGHT[1] 0.3
QUEUE-WEIGHT[2] 0.2

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 Other Configuration Files
„ Node placement: NODE-PLACEMENT-FILE
Æ See details in bin/default.nodes
„ Mobility trace: MOBILITY-TRACE-FILE
Æ See details in bin/default.mobility
„ Static routing: STATIC-ROUTE-FILE
Æ See details in bin/default.routes-static
„ Link/node faults: FAULT-CONFIG-FILE
Æ See details in bin/default.fault
„ Multicast membership: MULTICAST-GROUP-FILE
Æ See details in bin/default.member

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 Important Global Variables
„ EXPERIMENT-NAME: Name of the output statistic file
e.g. EXPERIMENT-NAME default
Resulting statistics are written in default.stat
„ SIMULATION-TIME: The length of time to simulate.
e.g. SIMULATION-TIME 15M
(Available time units: NS, US, MS, S, M, H, D; default is in
seconds)
„ SEED: The random seed used to derive all other seeds
used in the simulation.
e.g. SEED 1

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 Coordinates and Terrain Dimensions
„ COORDINATE-SYSTEM: LATLONALT or CARTESIAN
e.g., COORDINATE-SYSTEM CARTESIAN
„ TERRAIN-DIMENSIONS: The size of the rectangular area to simulate (in meters) for
Cartesian coordinate.
e.g., TERRAIN-DIMENSIONS (1000, 1000)
„ Terrain corners are required by LATLONALT system
e.g., TERRAIN-SOUTH-WEST-CORNER (30.00, 40.00)
TERRAIN-NORTH-EAST-CORNER (30.01, 40.01)
„ Irregular terrain
TERRAIN-DATA-TYPE DEM
DEM-FILENAME[0] ../data/terrain/los_angeles-w
DEM-FIlENAME[1] ../data/terrain/los_angeles-e

# Tie nodes to the ground level

MOBILITY-GROUND-NODE YES

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 Node Placement
„ NODE-PLACEMENT: GRID, RANDOM, UNIFORM, FILE
GRID RANDOM UNIFORM
GRID-UNIT

„ Use FILE to specify node positions in a file

NODE-PLACEMENT FILE
NODE-PLACEMENT-FILE ./default.nodes
„ Format: nodeId 0 (x, y, z) [azimuth elevation]

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 Node Placement In GUI
„ Manual
„ Choose Device type and
place
„ Automatic
„ Experiment->Automatic
Node Placement
„ Choices of Uniform,
Random or Grid

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 Mobility Model
„ NONE, TRACE
„ RANDOM-WAYPOINT
e.g. MOBILITY RANDOM-WAYPOINT
MOBILITY-WP-PAUSE 30S
(min,max) (min,max)
MOBILITY-WP-MIN-SPEED 0
MOBILITY-WP-MAX-SPEED 10 pause

„ MOBILITY-POSITION-GRANULARITY: distance in meters at which a

node’s location is updated
) small values potentially slow down the simulation

Location updates when granularity = 5

5m 1m

Location updates when granularity = 1

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 Setting Up A Wireless Scenario (1)

„ Scenario Description
„ Two small subnets communicating on different
frequencies, 2.4GHz and 2.5GHz
„ Mostly default settings: 802.11b, AODV, Two-Ray…
„ 5 nodes in the scenario
„ each within 300m of at least one other node
„ 3 in each subnet, one in both
„ Two subnets
„ One with Listening/Listenable Mask = 01, the other set
to 10.
„ One CBR application between two distant nodes

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 Specifying Topology
„ SUBNET Parameter
„ SUBNET <subnet> { comma-delimited list of nodes }

„ Ex. SUBNET N8-1.0 { 1, 3, 7 thru 9 }

„ NodeIds 1, 3, 7, 8, and 9 have network interfaces with address
0.0.1.1 through 0.0.1.5
Node ID Interface Address
1 0.0.1.1
3 0.0.1.2
7 0.0.1.3
8 0.0.1.4
9 0.0.1.5

„ Basic form: SUBNET N16-0 { 1 thru n }

„ n is the number of nodes

„ IP address and Node ID are identical

Æ Node 5 has IP address 0.0.0.5

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 Subnet Shorthand
„ Format:
N<# host bits>-<address with front end 0’s omitted>

„ Ex. N8-1.0 The subnet address is 0.0.1.0

Host IP addresses are 8 bits

„ This allows for 28-2 (254) hosts in this subnet with IP

addresses numbered from 0.0.1.1 through 0.0.1.254
„ The broadcast address for this subnet is 0.0.1.255
„ The subnet mask is 255.255.255.0
„ N8-0.0.1.0 is an equivalent representation

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 Wireless Scenario Layout in Animator

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 Command Line Layout
SUBNET N3-1.0 {1, 2, 3}
[N3-1.0] CHANNEL-LISTENABLE-MASK 10
[N3-1.0] CHANNEL-LISTENING-MASK 10

SUBNET N3-2.0 {3 thru 5}

[N3-2.0] CHANNEL-LISTENABLE-MASK 01
[N3-2.0] CHANNEL-LISTENING-MASK 01

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 Wireless Settings in Animator
Open Global Parameters

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 Channel Properties
„ Channel Frequencies
„ PROPAGATION-CHANNEL-FREQUENCY[0] 2.4e9
„ PROPAGATION-CHANNEL-FREQUENCY[1] 2.5e9
„ For each frequency you can set
„ Statistical Propagation model
„ Pathloss model
„ Free space or two ray or ITM
„ Fading model
„ Rayleigh
„ Ricean

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 Propagation Model
„ PROPAGATION-LIMIT: received signals with power
below this limit (in dBm) will not be processed.
e.g. PROPAGATION-LIMIT -111.0
„ PROPAGATION-PATHLOSS-MODEL: specifies path-loss
model
„ FREE-SPACE Æ Empty space, no ground (r2 loss)
„ TWO-RAY Æ Flat ground (r4 loss for far sight)
„ Considers a ray bounced back from the ground

d
hTX d’ hRX
ground

„ ITM Æ Irregular terrain (terrain database required)

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 Fading Model
„ Applied to only narrowband channels (flat fading)
„ Specified by PROPAGATION-FADING-MODEL
„ Available models
„ NONE – No fading

„ RAYLEIGH – Highly mobile, no line of sight

„ RICEAN – requires an additional parameter RICEAN-K-FACTOR

„ K = 0 : no line of sight (similar to RAYLEIGH)

„ K = ∞ : strong line of sight
e.g. PROPAGATION-FADING-MODEL RAYLEIGH

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 Physical Layer (Radio) Model
„ Noise modeling
„ Thermal noise

„ PHY-NOISE-FACTOR (default 10)

„ PHY-TEMPERATURE (in K; default 290)
„ Interference
„ PHY-RX-MODEL (SNR-THRESHOLD-BASED | BER-BASED)
„ Parameters specific to 802.11b
„ PHY802.11b-DATA-RATE (in bps) Rx threshold

„ PHY802.11b-TX-POWER (in dBm)

A
„ PHY802.11b-RX-SENSITIVITY (in dBm)
Rx sensitivity
„ PHY802.11b-RX-THRESHOLD (in dBm)
C B

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 Antenna Models φ

„ Omnidirectional
Pattern 3 Pattern 0
„ Switched beam (same shape,
different angle)
Pattern 2 Pattern 1
„ ANTENNA-MODEL SWITCHED-BEAM
„ ANTENNA-AZIMUTH-PATTERN-FILE
default.antenna-azimuth

„ Steerable (different shape, φ

different angle)
Pattern 0
„ ANTENNA-MODEL STEERABLE
„ ANTENNA-AZIMUTH-PATTERN-FILE
steerable.antenna-azimuth Pattern 2Pattern 1

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 Routing Protocols
„ Proactive protocols
„ BELLMANFORD
„ RIPv2
„ OSPFv2
„ OLSR
„ Reactive protocols
„ AODV
„ DSR
„ LAR1
„ Static routing: requires STATIC-ROUTE-FILE

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 MAC Layer Model
„ MAC-PROTOCOL: specifies MAC layer protocol
„ CSMA

„ Requires carrier sensing before transmission

„ If the channel is free, the packet is transmitted immediately
„ Otherwise, set a random timeout
„ MACA
„ Uses RTS/CTS to acquire channel
„ Does not carrier sense
„ MAC802.11
„ CSMA/CA with ACKs and optional RTS/CTS
„ TDMA
„ MAC802.3/SWITCHED-ETHERNET Æ Wired networks
„ SATCOM Æ Satellite networks
„ PROMISCUOUS-MODE: set to YES to allow nodes to overhear packets
destined to the neighboring node (required by DSR).

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 Network Layer: IP
„ Currently the only support network layer protocol
„ Available queuing models
„ First-in first-out (FIFO)
„ Variations of Random Early Detection: RED, RIO, WRED,
„ Three priority types supported: control (0), real-time
(1), and non-real-time (2)
„ IP-QUEUE-PRIORITY-QUEUE-SIZE specifies the queue’s
size (in bytes)
„ Each priority queue's size can be specified separately
IP-QUEUE-PRIORITY-QUEUE-SIZE[0] 25000
IP-QUEUE-PRIORITY-QUEUE-SIZE[1] 50000
IP-QUEUE-PRIORITY-QUEUE-SIZE[2] 50000

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 Application Specification
„ APP-CONFIG-FILE: Specifies a file with a list of
apps/traffic generators to run.
„ FTP
„ TELNET
„ CBR/MCBR
„ HTTP
„ VoIP
„ etc
„ See bin/default.app for more details

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 Application Specification In GUI
„ Click Application
button
„ Choose Application
„ Click source node
„ Drag to destination

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 Statistics
„ Some statistics include:
„ APPLICATION-STATISTICS (YES|NO)
„ TCP-STATISTICS (YES|NO)
„ UDP-STATISTICS (YES|NO)
„ ROUTING-STATISTICS (YES|NO)
„ NETWORK-LAYER-STATISTICS (YES|NO)
„ QUEUE-STATISTICS (YES|NO)
„ MAC-LAYER-STATISTICS (YES|NO)
„ PHY-LAYER-STATISTICS (YES|NO)
„ MOBILITY-STATISTICS (YES|NO)
„ Other statistics are protocol specific
„ BGP-STATISTICS (YES|NO)

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 Running

Run QualNet
(Action!)
Button

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 Run Scenario
„ Click Run QualNet (Action!) button
„ From View Menu
„ Select Animation Filter → By Event → Antenna
„ Press Play (watch for a while)
„ Press Pause, Step (1S)
„ From Edit menu
„ Select Set Step Size → By Animation Command
to 1

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 Controlling QualNet Simulator
„ Play—Plays continuously, resumes from a pause
„ Pause—Temporarily pauses execution
„ Stop—Stops QualNet; click Run QualNet
(Action!) to start over from the beginning
„ Step—Steps forward in the execution by 1
second

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 Visualizing the Scenario
„ Types of
animation
„ Mobility
„ Data transmission
„ send (blue)

„ receive (green)

„ Antenna patterns
„ Orientation
„ Queues

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 Animation Filtering

„ QualNet produces a • Filtering by layer

lot of animation
„ Slowing the GUI

and showing
more than the
user wishes to
see.

„ Filtering by event

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 Other Capabilities
„ Batch Execution: running
several experiments at
once.
„ Dynamic statistics

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 Analyzer Capabilities
„ Quickly graphs collected statistics.
„ Generates several types of figures for
convenient graphical comparison of results
„ Generate application-neutral ASCII data files
„ Can be imported into your favorite graphing program
(gnuplot, Excel)

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 Running Analyzer
„ After running the batch experiments, start
Analyzer
„ Click the Σ symbol in lower-right corner of the GUI,
or
„ Run Analyzer from Statistics menu
„ Note the stats files produced are as follows:
„ Qualnet_Seed1.stat
„ Qualnet_Seed2.stat, etc.

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 Analyzer Sample Screen

Data Set Metric

Window Window

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 Graph Types
„ The Analyzer (graphical component) supports
the following graph types
„ Single Experiment per-node comparison
„ (Choose one data set, one metric)
„ Multiple Experiment comparison
„ (Choose more than one data set, one metric)
„ Per-node average
„ Experiment-wide sum
„ Histogram

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 Single Experiment

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 Multiple Experiment

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 Histogram

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 Additional QualNet Resources
„ Plain-text explanation for configuration files:
„ $QUALNET_HOME/bin/default.*
„ Qualnet User Manual/Developer’s Guide
„ This is available either in your installation of QualNet or from
your QualNet Download Page (emailed to you)

„ QualNet Help Files

„ http://www.scalable-networks.com/help/index.html

„ Qualnet Community forums

„ http://www.scalable-networks.com/
training_and_support/support/forums/index.php

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