Laborator

y 1
Ethernet
A Direct Link Network with Media Access Control

Objective

This lab is designed to demonstrate the operation of the Ethernet network. The
simulation in this lab will help you examine the performance of the Ethernet network
under different scenarios.

Overview

The Ethernet is a working example of the more general Carrier Sense, Multiple
Access with Collision Detect (CSMA/CD) local area network technology. The Ethernet
is a multiple-access network, meaning that a set of nodes sends and receives frames
over a shared link. The “carrier sense” in CSMA/CD means that all the nodes can
distinguish between an idle and a busy link. The “collision detect” means that a node
listens as it transmits and can therefore detect when a frame it is transmitting has
interfered (collided) with a frame transmitted by another node. The Ethernet is said to
be a 1-persistent protocol because an adaptor with a frame to send transmits with
probability 1 whenever a busy line goes idle.

In this lab you will set up an Ethernet with 14 nodes connected via a coaxial link in a
bus topology. The coaxial link is operating at a data rate of 10 Mbps. You will study
how the throughput of the network is affected by the network load as well as the size
of the packets.

Procedure

Create a New Project

To create a new project for the Ethernet network:

 1. Start Riverbed Modeler Academic Edition ⇒ Choose New from the File
menu.

2. Select Project ⇒ Click OK ⇒ Name the project <your initials>_Ethernet,

and the scenario Coax_2 ⇒ Make sure that the Use Startup Wizard is checked ⇒ Click OK. Local area
networks
3. In the Startup Wizard: Initial Topology dialog box, make sure that Create Empty
(LANs) are designed to
span distances of up to aScenario is selected ⇒ Click Next ⇒ Choose Office from the Network Scale list few
thousand meters. ⇒ Click Next ⇒ Assign 200 to X Span and keep Y Span as 100 ⇒ Click Next twice ⇒ Click
Finish.

4. Close the Object Tree dialog box.

Create the Network

To create our coaxial Ethernet network:

1. To create the network configuration, select Topology ⇒ Rapid Configuration. From the drop-down menu
choose Bus and click Next.

2. Click the Select Models button in the Rapid Configuration dialog box. From the Model List drop-down
menu choose ethcoax and click OK.
3. In the Rapid Configuration dialog box, set the following eight values and click OK.

The eth_tap is an Ethernet bus tap that connects a node with the bus.

The eth_coax is an Ethernet bus that

can connect nodes with bus receivers
and transmitters via taps.
4. To configure the coaxial bus, right-click on
the horizontal link ⇒ Select Edit
Attributes

(Advanced) from the menu:

a. Click on the value of the model attribute ⇒

Select Edit from the drop- down menu
⇒ Choose the eth_coax_adv
model.
b. Assign the value 0.05 to the delay attribute (propagation delay in sec/m).
c. Assign 5 to the thickness attribute.
d. Click OK.

5. Now you have created the network. It should look like the illustration below.

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 6. Make sure to sa ve your project.

A higher delay is used

here as an alternativ
e to
generating higher traffic
which would require
much longer simulation
time.

Thickness specifies the

thickness of the line used
to “draw” the bus link.

Configure the Network Nodes

To configure the traffic generated by the nodes:

1. Right-click on any of the 30 nodes ⇒ Select Similar Nodes. Now all nodes in the network are selected.

2. Right-click on any of the 30 nodes ⇒ Edit Attributes.

3. Check the Apply Changes to Selected Objects check box. This is important to

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 The argument of the State Time to exponential(100) ⇒ Change the value of the OFF State
exponential
distribution is the Time to exponential(0.00001). (Note:
mean of the interval Packets are generated only in the "ON" state.)
between successive
events. In the
exponential 5. Expand the Packet Generation Arguments hierarchy:
distribution the
probability of
occurrence of the a. Change the value of the Packet Size attribute to constant(1024) ⇒
next event by a given
time is not at all
Change the value of the Interarrival Time attribute to exponential(2).
dependent upon the
time of occurrence of
the last event or the
elapsed time since
that event.

The interarrival time

is the time between
successive packet
generations in the
"ON" state.
avoid
reconfiguring
each node
individually.
4. Expand
the Traffic
Generatio
n
Parameter
s
hierarchy:
a.
Cha
nge
the
valu
e of
6. Click OK to return back to the Project Editor.
the
ON
7. Make sure to save your project.
Choose the Statistics

To choose the statistics to be collected during the simulation:

1. Right-click anywhere in the project workspace (but not on one of the nodes or
links) and select Choose Individual DES Statistics from the pop-up menu ⇒
Expand the Global Statistics hierarchy.

a. Expand the Traffic Sink hierarchy ⇒ Click the check box next to Traffic
Received (packets/sec) (make sure you select the statistic with units of
packets/sec),

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 b. Expand the Traffic Source hierarchy ⇒ Click the check box next to
Traffic Sent (packets/sec).

c. Click OK.

2. Now to collect the average of the above statistics as a scalar value by the end of
each simulation run:

a. Select Choose Statistics (Advanced) from the DES menu.

A probe represents b. The Traffic Sent and Traffic Received probes should appear under the
a request by the user Global Statistic Probes.
to collect a
particular piece of
data about a c. Right-click on Traffic Received probe ⇒ Edit Attributes. Set the scalar
simulation.
data attribute to enabled ⇒ Set the scalar type attribute to time average
⇒ Compare to the following figure and click OK.

d. Repeat the previous step with the Traffic Sent probe.

e. Select save from the File menu in the Probe Model window and then
close that window.

f. Now you are back to the Project Editor. Make sure to save your project.

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Run the Simulation

To run the simulation:

1. Click on the Configure/Run Simulation button: ⇒ Assign 30 second(s)

(not hours) to the Duration ⇒ Click Run. Depending on the speed of your
processor, this may take several minutes to complete.

2. After the simulation run is complete, click C los e.

3. Save your project.

4. Select Duplicate Scenario from the Scenarios menu.

5. Name the new scenario Coax_1.

6. Right-click on any of the 30 nodes ⇒ Select Similar Nodes. Now all nodes in
the network are selected.

7. Right-click on any of the 30 nodes Edit Attributes.

8. Check the Apply Changes to Selected Objects check box. This is important
to avoid reconfiguring each node individually.

9. Expand the Traffic Generation Parameters hierarchy Expand the Packet

Generation Arguments hierarchy Change the value of the Interarrival
Time attribute to exponential(1).

10. Go to back to step 1 in this page and repeat the instructions 8 times for the
Interarrival Times of exponential(0.5), exponential(0.25), exponential(0.1),
exponential(0.05), exponential(0.035), exponential(0.03),
exponential(0.025) and exponential(0.02) using the scenarios names:
Coax_05, Coax_025, Coax_01, Coax_005, Coax_0035, Coax_003,
Coax_025 and Coax_002. Notice that each time the simulator is completing a
run for different traffic generation interarrival time (representing the load into
the network) and that each successive run takes longer to complete because
the traffic intensity is increasing.

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View the Results

To view and analyze the results:

1. Click on the View Results button: Now the Results Browser is open.

2. Select the DES Parametric Studies tab.

3. From the Results for drop-down menu, select Current Project.

4. Uncheck and check again the results for your project in order to check all the
results.

5. Uncheck Coax_0025

6. Uncheck Include vectors.

7. Expand the Scalar Statistics ⇒ Expand the Traffic Sink and Traffic Source.

8. Right click on Traffic Received and select Set as Y-Series

9. Right click on Traffic Sent and select Set as X-Series

10. The resulting graph should resemble the one below:

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Questions

1) Explain the graph we received in the simulation that shows the relationship
between the received (throughput) and sent (load) packets. Why does the
throughput drop when the load is either very low or very high?

2) Use three duplicates of the simulation scenario implemented in this lab named
Coax_01, Coax_005, and Coax_0025. Make sure that the Interarrival Time
attribute of the Packet Generation Arguments for all nodes in the scenarios
are as follows:
- Coax_01 scenario: exponential(0.1)
- Coax_005 scenario: exponential(0.05)
- Coax_0025 scenario: exponential(0.025)

Choose the following statistic for node 0: Node Statistics →Ethcoax →Collision
Count. Make sure that the following global statistic is chosen: Global
Statistics→Traffic Sink→Traffic Received (packet/sec). (Refer to the
Choose the Statistics section in the lab.)

Run the simulation for all three scenarios. Get two graphs: one to compare
node 0’s collision counts in these three scenarios and the other graph to
compare the received traffic from the three scenarios. Explain the graphs and
comment on the results. (Note: To compare results you need to select
Compare Results from Results in the DES menu after the simulation runs is
done.)

3) To study the effect of the number of stations on Ethernet segment

performance, create a duplicate of the Coax_0025 scenario. Name the new
scenario Coax_Q3. In the new scenario, remove the odd- numbered nodes, a
total of 15 nodes (node 1, node 3, …, and node 29). Run the simulation for
the new scenario. Create a graph that compares node 0’s collision counts in

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 scenarios Coax_0025 and Coax_Q3. Explain the graph and comment on the
results.

4) In the simulation a packet size of 1024 bytes is used (Note: Each Ethernet
packet can contain up to 1500 bytes of data). To study the effect of the
packet size on the throughput of the created Ethernet network, create a
duplicate of the Coax_0025 scenario. Name the new scenario Coax_Q4. In
the new scenario use a packet size of 512 bytes (for all nodes). For both
Coax_0025 and Coax_Q4 scenarios, choose the following global statistic:
Global Statistics→Traffic Sink→Traffic Received (bits/sec). Rerun the
simulation of Coax_0025 and Coax_Q4 scenarios. Create a graph that
compares the throughput as packets/sec and another graph that compares
the throughput as bits/sec in Coax_0025 and Coax_Q4 scenarios. Explain
the graphs and comment on the results.

Lab Report

Prepare a report that follows the guidelines explained in Lab 0. The report should
include the answers to the above questions as well as the graphs you generated from
the simulation scenarios. Discuss the results you obtained and compare these results
with your expectations. Mention any anomalies or unexplained behaviors.

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1)

Se puede ver que el máximo rendimiento en cuanto a la recepción es de 500 paquetes por
segundo.
La red comienza a congestionarse por lo tanto empieza a bajar la cantidad de paquetes recibidos,
mientras que los paquetes enviados siguen aumentando

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2)

En el grafico podemos ver la mayor cantidad de colisiones cuando el exponencial es mas chico.

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En en escenario COAX 0.025 (Verde) vemos que cuando llega al pico de trafico recibido luego
empieza a decrementar.
En el escenario COAX 0.05 (Rojo) vemos que cuando el trafico es alto decrece un poco y vuelve a
aumentar.
En el escenario COAX 0.01(Azul) la curva esta en constante creimiento.

3)

Podemos ver que al reducir la cantidad de nodos en el segundo escenario hay menor cantidad de
colisiones.(Azul = 30nodos) (Rojo=15 nodos)

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4)

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 En los graficos podemos ver como a medida que pasa el tiempo la velocidad de la red de 512
Bytes(Rojo) es mas alta que la de 1024 (Azul).
A mayor cantidad de Bytes/Paquetes hay peor será el rendimiento.

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