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Jianping Wang, 2004 cs757 1

ns-2 Tutorial (1)
Multimedia Networking Group,
The Department of Computer Science, UVA
Jianping Wang
Jianping Wang, 2004 cs757 2
Contents:
Objectives of this week
What is ns-2?
Working with ns-2
Tutorial exercise
ns-2 internals
Extending ns-2
Today
Partly adopted from Nicolas slides.
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Objectives of this week
Get some exposure to one of the most useful tools in
networking research and development.
Understand and work with a popular network
simulator.
Get a better understanding of the networking
dynamics.
Smooth the learning curve.
Jianping Wang, 2004 cs757 4
What is ns-2?
ns-2 stands for Network Simulator version 2.
ns-2:
Is a discrete event simulator for networking research
Work at packet level.
Provide substantial support to simulate bunch of
protocols like TCP, UDP, FTP, HTTP and DSR.
Simulate wired and wireless network.
Is primarily Unix based.
Use TCL as its scripting language.
ns-2 is a standard experiment environment in
research community.
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tcl8.0
otcl
tclcl
Event ns-2
Scheduler
Network
Component
What is ns-2 (cont.) ?
otcl: Object-oriented support
tclcl: C++ and otcl linkage
Discrete event scheduler
Data network (the Internet) components
You are here.
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Simulation
Scenario
Tcl Script
C++
Implementation
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set ns_ [new Simulator]
set node_(0) [$ns_ node]
set node_(1) [$ns_ node]
class MobileNode : public Node
{
friend class PositionHandler;
public:
MobileNode();

}
ns-2 implementation
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C++: Detailed protocol simulations require
systems programming language
byte manipulation, packet processing, algorithm
implementation
Run time speed is important
Turn around time (run simulation, find bug, fix bug,
recompile, re-run) is slower
Tcl: Simulation of slightly varying parameters or
configurations
quickly exploring a number of scenarios
iteration time (change the model and re -run) is more
important
Why two language? (Tcl & C++)
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Other network simulators
OPNET (http://www.opnet.com)
Leading Commercial Software
Support Windows and Unix
Graphical Interface
Not free
GloMoSim (http://pcl.cs.ucla.edu/projects/glomosim)
Simulation enviroment for wireless network
Scalable to support thousands of nodes
Using layered approach to build different simulation layers
Free for educational users
More Resources
http://www.icir.org/models/simulators.html
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Working with ns-2
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Getting started: install ns-2
Download software package from:
http://www.isi.edu/nsnam/ns /
- Easy installation way: all at once
The latest version is 2.27 released at Jan 18, 2004. It
contains:
- Tk release 8.4.5
- Tk release 8.4.5
- Otcl release 1.8
- TclCL release 1.15
- Ns release 2.27
- Namrelease 1.10
- Xgraph version 12
- CWeb version 3.4g
- SGB version 1.0
- Gt-itm gt-itm and sgb2ns 1.1
- Zlib version 1.1.4
Works on Unix and cygwin for windows 9x/2000/xp.
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Running ns-2 program
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Hello World - Interactive mode
[jwang@iodine jwang]$ ns
% set ns [new Simulator]
_o4
% $ns at 1 puts \Hello World!\
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% $ns at 1.5 exit
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% $ns run
Hello World!
[jwang@iodine jwang]$
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Hello World - Batch mode
simple.tcl:
set ns [new Simulator]
$ns at 1 puts \Hello World!\
$ns at 1.5 exit
$ns run
[jwang@iodine jwang]$ ns simple.tcl
Hello World!
[jwang@iodine jwang]$
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Basic tcl
proc test {} {
set a 43 ; a = 43
set b 27 ; b = 27
set c [expr $a + $b] ; c = a + b
set d [expr [expr $a - $b] * $c] ; d = (a b) * c
for {set k 0} {$k < 10} {incr k} { ; for (k=0; k<10; k++)
puts k = $k
}
}
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Basic otcl
Class mom
mom instproc greet {} {
$self instvar age_
puts $age_ years old mom:
How are you doing?
}
Class kid -superclass mom
kid instproc greet {} {
$self instvar age_
puts $age_ years old kid:
Whats up, dude?
}
set a [new mom]
$a set age_ 45
set b [new kid]
$b set age_ 15
$a greet
$b greet
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Basic ns-2
Create a new simulator object
[Turn on tracing]
[Open your own trace files]
Create network (physical layer)
Create link and queue (data-link layer)
Define routing protocol
Create transport connection (transport layer)
Create traffic (application layer)
Insert errors
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Creating simulator instance
Create simulator instance
set ns [new Simulator]
- Usually the first non-comment statement in ns-
2 script
- Initialize the packet format
- Create a scheduler (default is a calendar
scheduler)
- Create a null agent
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Turning on a tracefile
Open file for NS tracing
set f [open out.tr w]
$ns trace-all $f
Open file for nam tracing
set nf [open out.nam w]
$ns namtrace-all $nf
Open your own trace file
set my_f [open my_out.tr w]
puts $my_f [$ns now] [expr $x(1) + $y(1)]
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Creating a network(1)
Network topology
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Creating a network (2)
Creating nodes
set node_(h1) [$ns node]
set node_(h2) [$ns node]
set node_(r1) [$ns node]
set node_(r2) [$ns node]
set node_(h3) [$ns node]
set node_(h4) [$ns node]
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Creating a network(3)
Creating Link and Queue
$ns duplex-link $node_(h1) $node_(r1)
10Mb 2ms DropTail
$ns duplex-link $node_(h2) $node_(r2)
10Mb 3ms DropTail
$ns duplex-link $node_(r1) $node_(r2)
1.5Mb 20ms DropTail
$ns queue-limit $node_(r1) $node_(r2) 50

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Creating a TCP connection
set tcp0 [$ns create-connection TCP/Reno
$node_(h1) TCPSink/DelAck $node_(h4) 0]
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Creating traffic
Attaching FTP traffic on the top of TCP
set ftp0 [$tcp0 attach-app FTP]
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Insert errors
set loss_module [new ErrorModel]
$loss_module set rate_ 0.01
$loss_module unit pkt
$loss_module ranvar [new
RandomVariable/Uniform]
$loss_module drop-target [new Agent/Null]
$ns lossmodel $loss_module $n0 $n1
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Summary
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Start/Stop ns
Schedule an event to start traffic at time 1.0
$ns at 1.0 "$ftp0 start
Schedule an event to stop ns at time 17.0
$ns at 17.0 "$ftp0 stop
Start ns
$ns run
- last statement
Stop ns
exit 0
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Visualization tool: nam
Replay events from a nam trace file
The nam trace file can be huge when
simulation time is long or events happen
intensively. Be careful!
Run nam:
$nam a nam_trace_file.nam
In ns-2 script:
Proc finish{} {

exec nam a nam_trace_file.nam &
exit
}
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Draw plots using xgraph
Create your own output files
Collect statistical data synchronized.
Run xgraph:
$xgraph out0.tr, out1.tr geometry 800x400
In ns-2 script:
Proc finish{} {

exec xgraph out0.tr, out1.tr out2.tr geometry
800x400 &
exit
}
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Useful URLs
http://www.isi.edu/nsnam/ns - the official ns
homepage
http://www.isi.edu/nsnam/ns/ns-documentation.html - ns
manual
http://jan.netcomp.monash.edu.au/ProgrammingUnix
/tcl/tcl_tut.html - Tcl tutorial
http://bmrc.berkeley.edu/research/cmt/cmtdoc/otcl/ -
oTcl tutorial