EXPERIMENT-4

Aim: Study of different Network simulators (NS) tools like Cisco Packet Tracer, NetSim,
OMNet++,NS2,NS3 etc.

Theory-

NETWORK SIMULATOR (NS2)

NS Overview:

 NS Programming: A Quick start Case study

 Case study I :A simple Wireless network
 Case study II: Create a new agent in Ns
 Ns Status
 Plat form support
 FreeBSD , Linux, Solaris, Windows and Mac

Ns Functionalities

Routing, Transportation, Traffic sources, queuing disciplines, QoS

Wireless

Ad hoc routing, mobile IP, sensor-MAC Tracing, visualization and various utilities
NS(Network Simulators) Most of the commercial simulators are GUI driven, while some network
simulators are CLI driven. The network model / configuration describe the state of the network
(nodes, routers, switchesand links) and the events (data transmissions, packet error etc.). The
important outputs of simulations are the trace files. Trace files log every packet, every event that
occurred in the simulation and are used for analysis. Network simulators can also provide other tools
to facilitate visual analysis of trends and potential trouble spots.

Most network simulators use discrete event simulation, in which a list of pending "events" is stored,
and those events are processed in order, with some events triggering future events such as the event of
the arrival of a packet at one node triggering the event of the arrival of that packet at a downstream
node. Simulation of networks is a very complex task. For example, if congestion is high, then
estimation of the average occupancy is challenging because of high variance. To estimate the
likelihood of a buffer overflow in a network, the time required for an accurate answer can
be extremely large. Specialized techniques such as "control variants" and "importance sampling" have
been developed to speed simulation.

Examples of network simulators

There are many both free/open-source and proprietary network simulators. Examples of notable
networksimulationsoftwareare,orderedafterhowoftentheyarementionedinresearchpapers:

 ns(open source)
 OPNET(proprietary software)
 NetSim(proprietary software)
Uses of network simulators

Network simulators serve a variety of needs. Compared to the cost and time involved in setting up an
entire test bed containing multiple networked computers, routers and data links, network
simulators are relatively fast and inexpensive. They allow engineers, researchers to test scenarios that
might be particularly difficult or expensive to emulate using real hardware -for instance, simulating a
scenario with several nodes or experimenting with a new protocol in the network. Network
simulators are particularly useful in allowing researchers to test new networking protocols or changes
to existing protocols in a controlled and reproducible environment. A typical network simulator
encompasses a wide range of networking technologies and can help the users to build
complex networks from basic building blocks such as a variety of nodes and links. With the help of
simulators, one can design hierarchical networks using various types of nodes like computers,
hubs, bridges, routers, switches, links, mobile units etc. Various types of Wide Area Network (WAN)
technologies like TCP, ATM, IP etc. and Local Area Network (LAN) technologies like Ethernet,
token rings etc., can all be simulated with a typical simulator and the user can test, analyse various
standard results apart from devising some novel protocol or strategy for routing etc. Network
simulators are also widely used to simulate battlefield networks in Network-centric warfare There
are a wide variety of network simulators, ranging from the very simple to the very complex.
Minimally, a network simulator must enable a user to represent a network topology, specifying the
nodes on the network, the links between those nodes and the traffic between the nodes. More
complicated systems may allow the user to specify everything about the protocols used to handle
traffic in a network. Graphical applications allow users to easily visualize the workings of their
simulated environment. Text-based applications may provide a less intuitive interface, but may
permit more advanced forms of customization.

Packet loss occurs when one or more packets of data travelling across a computer network fail to
reach their destination. Packet loss is distinguished as one of the three main error types
encountered in digital communications; the other two being bit error and spurious packets caused due
to noise. Packets can be lost in a network because they may be dropped when a queue in the network
node overflows. The amount of packet loss during the steady state is another important property of a
congestion control scheme. The larger the value of packet loss, the more difficult it is for transport
layer protocols to maintain high bandwidths, the sensitivity to loss of individual packets, as well as to
frequency and patterns of loss among longer packet sequences is strongly dependent on the
application itself.

Throughput

This is the main performance measure characteristic, and most widely used. In communication
networks, such as Ethernet or packet radio, throughput or network throughput is the average rate of
successful message delivery over a communication channel. The throughput is usually measured in
bits per second (bits or bps), and sometimes in data packets per second or data packets per time slot
This measure how soon the receiver is able to get a certain amount of data send by the sender. It is
determined as the ratio of the total data received to the end to end delay. Throughput is an
important factor which directly impacts the network performance

Delay
Delay is the time elapsed while a packet travels from one point e.g., source premise or network
ingress to destination premise or network degrees. The larger the value of delay, the more difficult it
is for transport layer protocols to maintain high band widths. We will calculate end to end delay

Queue Length

A queuing system in networks can be described as packets arriving for service, waiting for service if it
is not immediate, and if having waited for service, leaving the system after being served. Thus
queue length is very important characteristic to determine that how well the active queue
management of the congestion control algorithm has been working.

Cisco packet tracer

Cisco Packet Tracer is a comprehensive, networking technology teaching and learning program that
offers a unique combination of realistic simulation and visualization experiences, assessment and
activity authoring capabilities, and opportunities for multiuser collaboration and competition.

NetSim

NetSim has defined the state of the art in the modeling of communication networks and provided the
principal simulation environment for thousands of scientists, engineers, researchers, educators and
students around the world.

Widely admired for both its technical prowess and elegant ease of use, NetSim provides a single
integrated, continually expanding system that covers the breadth and depth of communication
networks.

OMNeT++

OMNeT++ is an extensible, modular, component-based C++ simulation library and framework,

primarily for building network simulators. “Network” is meant in a broader sense that includes wired
and wireless communication networks, on-chip networks, queueing networks, and so on.

NS2 & NS3

ns-2 is a popular discrete-event network simulator developed under several previous research grants
and activities. It remains in active use and will continue to be maintained.

ns-3 is a new software development effort focused on improving upon the core architecture, software
integration, models, and educational components of ns-2.

Result- We have studied Network Simulator in detail.