LAB1 - Introduction to

ns-3
Réseaux Mobiles
M2 RSD
Pr. Nabila LABRAOUI
Department of Computer Science
University of Tlemcen

2024-2025
What is NS-3?

A Discrete-event network simulator ,

targeted primarily for research and
educational
 Open Source: ns-3 is free and publicly
available for use
 Collection of C++ libraries, not a program :
ns-3 is written entirely with C++ while
Python user code wrappers are available.
 Support under Linux, FreeBSD and Cygwin
Key Terms and Abstractions

 Node - the hardware (eg. router, PC, phone)

 Network device (ND) - transmits and receives over the
channel
 Channel - transmission medium between NDs (eg. WiFi,
ethernet)
 Application - creates or receives data sent between nodes
 Helper - is a utility class that simplifies the creation,
configuration, and management of network objects (such as
nodes, devices, and applications) by abstracting the
complexity of low-level APIs.
Architecture
Architecture

 Just like TCP/IP stacks

 Applications running in a node use Protocol Stack
(TCP, UDP, IP, etc)
 Protocol Stack sends packets to NetDevices ( or
Network interfaces / adapters)
 Each NetDevice interfaces with each Channel (WiFi,
LTE, etc.)
Installing ns3 (1)
1) Download and install VirtualBox from the download page :
https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads
2) Download an Ubuntu Image (the latest version is 24.04 LTS from :
https://ubuntu.com/download/desktop
More details on configuration in this website :
https://ubuntu.com/tutorials/how-to-run-ubuntu-desktop-on-a-virtual-ma
chine-using-virtualbox#1-overview

3) Installation of ns-3.42 on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS

 Download ns-allinone-3.42.tar.bz2 from
https://www.nsnam.org/releases/ns-allinone-3.42.tar.bz2 and store it in
the home folder, Extract the archive
 Open a new terminal
Installing ns3 (2)
 $ sudo apt update
 $ sudo apt install g++ python3 cmake ninja-build git
gir1.2-goocanvas-2.0 python3-gi python3-gi-cairo python3-
pygraphviz gir1.2-gtk-3.0 ipython3 tcpdump wireshark
sqlite sqlite3 libsqlite3-dev qtbase5-dev qtchooser qt5-
qmake qtbase5-dev-tools openmpi-bin openmpi-common
openmpi-doc libopenmpi-dev doxygen graphviz imagemagick
python3-sphinx dia imagemagick texlive dvipng latexmk
texlive-extra-utils texlive-latex-extra texlive-font-utils
libeigen3-dev gsl-bin libgsl-dev libgslcblas0 libxml2
libxml2-dev libgtk-3-dev lxc-utils lxc-templates vtun uml-
utilities ebtables bridge-utils libxml2 libxml2-dev
libboost-all-dev ccache
Installing ns3 (3)
 Now we have to go to the installation.
 Open a new Terminal and type the following commands.
 $ cd ns-allinone-3.42/
 $ ./build.py --enable-examples --enable-tests
 Depending on your system, the time can be anywhere between 20 minutes
to sometimes 1 hour
 To check whether they are working, use the following command
 Open a new terminal
 $ cd ns-allinone-3.42/ns-3.42/
 $ ./ns3 run hello-simulator
 If you see Hello Simulator, congratulations! You have environments ready
for running ns-3
 The first Script
 Download vim editor (you can use Eclipse IDE)
 Sudo apt install vim
 vim examples/tutorial/first.cc

 This first.cc script configures a simple network with two

nodes linked by a point-to-point link. The script
implements client-server communication using the
UdpEchoServer and UdpEchoClient applications.
 Script header
 Add module header files
#include "ns3/core-module.h"
#include "ns3/network-module.h"
#include "ns3/internet-module.h"
#include "ns3/point-to-point-module.h"
#include "ns3/applications-module.h"
// These instructions include the necessary NS3 modules
 Namespace
using namespace ns3; // Eliminates the need to write ns3:: before
each NS3 class or function.
 Create log components
NS LOG COMPONENT DEFINE ("FirstScriptExample");
// declare a logging component in NS-3 for your script
More headers

 Set time resolution

Time::SetResolution (Time::NS);
// Sets time resolution to the nanosecond (NS). NS3 uses different time
units (Time::NS, Time::MS, Time::S, etc.).
 Enable log components and set log levels
LogComponentEnable ("UdpEchoClientApplication", LOG LEVEL INFO);
LogComponentEnable ("UdpEchoServerApplication", LOG LEVEL INFO);
// enables logging for a specific component in the NS-3 script
// It allows you to see informative messages related to sending packets
and establishing connections,…
 Creating topology
 Create nodes
NodeContainer nodes;
nodes.Create (2);
 Create Channel
PointToPointHelper pointToPoint;
pointToPoint.SetDeviceAttribute ("DataRate", StringValue ("5Mbps"));
pointToPoint.SetChannelAttribute ("Delay", StringValue ("2ms"));
// Configure the point-to-point link between nodes
 Create NetDevice and bind them to Channel
NetDeviceContainer devices;
devices = pointToPoint.Install (nodes);
 Protocol Stack
 Create InternetStack
InternetStackHelper stack;
stack.Install (nodes);
// installation of the Internet protocol stack (TCP/IP) on nodes
 Set IP network address
Ipv4AddressHelper address;
address.SetBase ("10.1.1.0", "255.255.255.0");
 Assign IP to NetDevice
Ipv4InterfaceContainer interfaces = address.Assign (devices);
 Building UDP Echo Server

 Create echo server

UdpEchoServerHelper echoServer (9);
 Install echo server to node 1, mark it application, and set start and stop time
ApplicationContainer serverApps = echoServer.Install (nodes.Get (1));
serverApps.Start (Seconds (1.0));
serverApps.Stop (Seconds (10.0));
 Create echo client and set its attributes
UdpEchoClientHelper echoClient (interfaces.GetAddress (1), 9);
// Port number of server: 9
echoClient.SetAttribute ("MaxPackets", UintegerValue (1));
// the client will send exactly 1 UDP packet during the simulation.
echoClient.SetAttribute ("Interval", TimeValue (Seconds (1.0)));
echoClient.SetAttribute ("PacketSize", UintegerValue (1024));
Building UDP Echo Server

 Install echo client to node 0, mark it application, and set start

and stop time
ApplicationContainer clientApps = echoClient.Install (nodes.Get (0));
clientApps.Start (Seconds (2.0)); clientApps.Stop (Seconds (10.0));
 Run, destroy, return
Simulator::Run ();
Simulator::Destroy ();
return 0;
int main (int argc, char *argv[])
{
// Step 1: Create and configure nodes
NodeContainer nodes; nodes.Create (2);
// Step 2: Set up point-to-point link attributes
PointToPointHelper pointToPoint;
pointToPoint.SetDeviceAttribute ("DataRate", StringValue ("5Mbps"));
pointToPoint.SetChannelAttribute ("Delay", StringValue ("2ms"));
// Step 3: Install devices on nodes
NetDeviceContainer devices; devices = pointToPoint.Install (nodes);
// Step 4: Install Internet stack on nodes
InternetStackHelper stack; stack.Install (nodes);
// Step 5: Assign IP addresses to nodes
Ipv4AddressHelper address; address.SetBase ("10.1.1.0", "255.255.255.0");
Ipv4InterfaceContainer interfaces = address.Assign (devices);
// Step 6: Set up an application on Node 1 (server)
UdpEchoServerHelper echoServer (9);
ApplicationContainer serverApps = echoServer.Install (nodes.Get (1));
serverApps.Start (Seconds (1.0));
serverApps.Stop (Seconds (10.0));
// Step 7: Set up a client application on Node 0
UdpEchoClientHelper echoClient (interfaces.GetAddress (1), 9);
echoClient.SetAttribute ("MaxPackets", UintegerValue (1));
echoClient.SetAttribute ("Interval", TimeValue (Seconds (1.0)));
echoClient.SetAttribute ("PacketSize", UintegerValue (1024));
ApplicationContainer clientApps = echoClient.Install (nodes.Get (0));
clientApps.Start (Seconds (2.0));
clientApps.Stop (Seconds (10.0));
// Step 8: Start the simulation
Simulator::Run ();
// Step 9: Clean up after simulation ends
Simulator::Destroy (); return 0;
}
Work to do

 Increase packet sizes 4K, 16K, 64K

 Have the client send the packets every one second
for 4 packets
 Double data link rate Double data link delay
 Increase the number of echo clients to 2, 3, 4, 5 and
have them send packets to the server