(OK) NCTUns (EstiNet) --- a high-fidelity and extensible network simulator and emulator

http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-388967-570863.html

今天看到一个仿真与模拟软件NCTUns（http://csie.nqu.edu.tw/smallko/nctuns/nctuns.htm），可惜只免费到到6.0，以后的版本因为该软件的成功而升级为商业版本--EstiNet7.0，且不再提供老版本的免费下载。从该网站的介绍看，该软件还是不错的，可以提供以下几方面的功能，某些方面可以说比NS2/OPNet要方便，不足的地方就是只“完美”支持Fedora12（虽然也有在Ubuntu下做的，不过问题不少！），且在应用层能支持的东东不是很多，权且收下，抽空好好看看。

NCTUns（http://csie.nqu.edu.tw/smallko/nctuns/nctuns.htm）

EstiNet7.0

（2）Introduction:

TheNCTUns is a high-fidelity and extensible network simulator and emulator capableof simulating various protocols used in both wired and wireless IP networks. Its core technology is basedon the novel kernel re-entering methodology invented by Prof. S.Y. Wang [1, 2]when he was pursuing his Ph.D. degree at Harvard University.Due to this novel methodology, NCTUns provides many unique advantages thatcannot be easily achieved by traditional network simulators such as ns-2 [3]and OPNET [4].

After obtaining hisPh.D. degree from Harvard University in September 1999, Prof. S.Y. Wangreturned to Taiwan and became a professor in the Department of ComputerScience, National Chiao Tung University (NCTU), Taiwan, where he founded his“Network and System Laboratory.” Since that time, Prof. S.Y. Wang has beenleading and working with his students to design and implement NCTUns (the NCTUNetwork Simulator) for more than nine years. 

The NCTUns networksimulator and emulator has many useful features listed below:

·        It can be easily used as anemulator. An external host in the real world canexchange packets (e.g., set up a TCP connection) with nodes (e.g., host,router, or mobile station) in a network simulated by NCTUns. Two external hostsin the real world can also exchange their packets via a network simulated byNCTUns. This feature is very useful as the function and performance ofreal-world devices can be tested under various simulated network conditions.

·        It supports distributedemulation of a large network over multiple machines.When the emulated network has many nodes,many real-world applications need to run on these nodes, many real-worlddevices need to connect to the emulated network, or the amount of real-worldpackets exchanged among real-world devices over the emulated network is large,a single machine may not have enough CPU power and main memory to run theemulation in real time. In such a condition, NCTUns can partition the emulatednetwork into several smaller parts and let each part be emulated by a NCTUnsmachine. The usage of a distributed emulation is totally automatic and the userwon’t notice that the emulation is carried out over multiple machines.

·        It supports seamless integrationof emulation and simulation. A complicatednetwork simulated by NCTUns can be seamlessly integrated with a real-lifenetwork. Real-life network traffic can pass through a complicated simulatednetwork and interact with simulated network traffic.

·        It directly uses the real-lifeLinux TCP/IP protocol stack to generate high-fidelity simulation results. By using a novel kernel re-enteringsimulation methodology, a real-life Linux kernel’s protocol stack is directlyused to generate high-fidelity simulation results.

·        It can run any real-life UNIXapplication program on a simulated node without any modification. Any real-life program (e.g., P2P BitTorrent or Javaprograms) can be run on a simulated host, router, mobile node, etc. to generaterealistic network traffic. This capability also enables a researcher toevaluate the functionality and performance of a distributed application orsystem under various network conditions. Another important advantage of thisfeature is that application programs developed during simulation studies can bedirectly deployed and run on real-world UNIX machines after simulation studiesare finished. This eliminates the time and effort required to port a simulationprototype to a real-world implementation if traditional network simulators wereused.

·        It can use any real-life UNIXnetwork configuration and monitoring tools. For example, the UNIX route, ifconfig, netstat,tcpdump, traceroute commands can be run on a simulated network to configure ormonitor the simulated network.

·        Its setup and usage of asimulated network and application programs are exactly the same as those usedin real-life IP networks.For example, each layer-3 interface has an IP address automatically assigned toit by the GUI and application programs directly use these IP addresses tocommunicate with each other. For this reason, any person who is familiar withreal-life IP networks will easily learn and operate NCTUns in just a fewminutes. For the same reason, NCTUns can be used as an educational tool toteach students how to configure and operate a real-life network. 

·        It simulates various importantnetworks. Thesupported networks include Ethernet-based fixed Internet, IEEE 802.11(b)wireless LANs, mobile ad hoc (sensor) networks, GPRS cellular networks, opticalnetworks (including both circuit-switching and busrt-switching networks), IEEE802.11(b) dual-radio wireless mesh networks, IEEE 802.11(e) QoS wireless LANs,Tactical and active mobile ad hoc networks, 3dB beamwidth 60-degree and90-degree steerable and directional antennas, IEEE 802.16(d) WiMAX wirelessnetworks (including the PMP and mesh modes), DVB-RCS satellite networks,wireless vehicular networks for Intelligent Transportation Systems (includingV2V and V2I), multi-interface mobile nodes for heterogeneous wireless networks,IEEE 802.16(e) mobile WiMAX networks, IEEE 802.11(p)/1609 WAVE wirelessvehicular networks, various realistic wireless channel models, IEEE 802.16(j)transparent mode and non-transparent mode WiMAX networks, etc. 

·        It simulates various importantprotocols. For example, IEEE 802.3 CSMA/CD MAC, IEEE802.11 (b) CSMA/CA MAC, IEEE 802.11(e) QoS MAC, IEEE 802.11(b) wireless meshnetwork routing protocol, IEEE 802.16(d)(e)( j) WiMAXwireless MAC and PHY, DVB-RCSsatellite MAC and PHY,learning bridge protocol, spanning tree protocol, IP, Mobile IP, Diffserv(QoS), RIP, OSPF, UDP, TCP, RTP/RTCP/SDP, HTTP, FTP, Telnet, BitTorrent, etc.

·        It finishes a network simulationcase quickly. By combining thekernel re-entering methodology with the discrete-event simulation methodology,a simulation job can be finished quickly.

·        It generates repeatablesimulation results.If the user fixes the random number seed for a simulation case, the simulationresults of a case are the same across different simulation runs even if thereare some other activities (e.g., disk I/O) occurring on the simulation machine.

·        It provides a highly-integratedand professional GUI environment.This GUI can help a user to quickly (1) draw network topologies, (2) configurethe protocol modules used inside a node, (3) specify the moving paths of mobilenodes, (4) plot network performance graphs, (5) play back the animation of alogged packet transfer trace, etc. All of these operations can be easily,intuitively, and quickly done with the GUI.

·        Its simulation engine adopts anopen-system architecture and is open source. By using a set of module APIs provided by thesimulation engine, a protocol developer can easily implement his (her) protocoland integrate it into the simulation engine. NCTUns uses a simple andeasy-to-understand syntax to describe the settings and configurations of asimulation job. These descriptions are generated by the GUI and stored in asuite of files. Normally the GUI will automatically transfer these files to thesimulation engine for execution. However, if a researcher wants to try his(her) novel device or network configurations that the current GUI does notsupport, he (she) can totally bypass the GUI and generate the suite ofdescription files by himself (herself) using any text editor (or scriptprogram). The non-GUI-generated suite of files can then be manually fed to thesimulation engine for execution.   

·        It supports remote andconcurrent simulations. NCTUns adopts adistributed architecture. The GUI and simulation engine are separatelyimplemented and use the client-server model to communicate. Therefore, a remoteuser using the GUI program can remotely submit his (her) simulation job to aserver running the simulation engine. The server will run the submittedsimulation job and later return the results back to the remote GUI program foranalyses. This scheme can easily support the cluster computing model in whichmultiple simulation jobs are performed in parallel on different servermachines. Thiscan increase the total simulation throughput.

·        It provides complete and high-qualitydocumentations. TheGUI user manual and the protocol developer manual provide detailed informationabout how to use NCTUns. The NCTUns package provides 83 example simulationcases and their demo video clips to help a user easily understand how to run upa simulation case.

·        It is continuously supported, maintained, and improved. New functions and network types arecontinuously added to NCTUns to enhance its functions, speed, and capabilities.

（3）Relatedpapers:

S.Y.Wang, and Y.M. Huang, “ NCTUns Distributed Network Emulator,” Internet Journal, Vol. 4, Num. 2, pp. 61-94, Nova Science Publisher (ISSN 1937-3805), 2012

 S.Y.Wang, P.F. Wang, Y.W. Li, and L.C. Lau, “Design and Implementation of A More Realistic Radio Propagation Model for WirelessVehicular Networks over the NCTUns Network Simulator,” IEEE WCNC 2011 (Wireless Communications and Networking Conference 2011),March 28 – 31, 2011, Cancun, Mexico.

 S.Y.Wang, C.C. Lin, and C.C. Huang, “NCTUnsTool for Evaluating the Performances of Real-life P2P Applications,” achapter of the “Peer-to-Peer Networksand Internet Policies” book, (ISBN 978-1-60876-287-3, published by Nova Science Publishers in 2010)

 S.Y. Wang, H.Y. Chen, and S.W.Chuang, “NCTUns Tool for IEEE 802.16j Mobile WiMAXRelay Network Simulations,” a chapter of the “Computer Science Research and Technology” book, (ISBN: 978-1-61728-688-9, published by Nova Science Publishers in 2009)

 S.Y. Wang and C.L. Chou, “NCTUns Tool for WirelessVehicular Communication Network Researches,” SimulationModelling Practice and Theory, Vol. 17, No. 7, pp. 1211-1226, August 2009.

 S.Y.Wang and R.M. Huang, “NCTUns Tool for Innovative NetworkEmulations,” a chapter of the “Computer-Aided Design and OtherComputing Research Developments” book, (ISBN: 978-1-60456-860-8, published by Nova Science Publishers in2009)

 S.Y. Wang and C.C. Lin, "NCTUns5.0: A Network Simulator for IEEE 802.11(p) and 1609 Wireless Vehicular NetworkResearches," 2nd IEEE International Symposium on Wireless VehicularCommunications, September 21–22, 2008, Calgary, Canada. (demo paper)

 S.Y. Wang and C.L.Chou, "NCTUns Simulator for Wireless Vehicular AdHoc Network Research", a chapter of the "Ad Hoc Networks: New Research"book (Nova Science Publishers,ISBN: 978-1-60456-895-0)

 S.M. Huang, Y.C.Sung, S.Y. Wang, and Y.B. Lin, “NCTUns Simulation Toolfor WiMAX Modeling,” Third Annual International Wireless InternetConference, October 22 – 24, 2007, Austin, Texas, USA. (EI and ISI indexed,sponsored by ICST, ACM, EURASIP)

 S.Y.Wang, C.L. Chou, Y.H. Chiu, Y.S.Tseng, M.S. Hsu, Y.W. Cheng, W.L. Liu, and T.W. Ho,“NCTUns 4.0: An Integrated SimulationPlatform for Vehicular Traffic, Communication, and Network Researches,”1^st IEEE International Symposium on Wireless VehicularCommunications, September 30 – October 1, 2007, Baltimore, MD, USA

 S.Y. Wang,C.L. Chou, C.C. Lin, “The Design andImplementation of the NCTUns Network Simulation Engine”,Elsevier Simulation Modelling Practice and Theory, 15 (2007) 57 – 81.

 S.Y. Wang and K.C. Liao, “InnovativeNetwork Emulations using the NCTUns Tool”, as a book chapter of the “Computer Networking and Networks”book, (ISBN1-59454-830-7,publishedby Nova Science Publishers in 2006)

 S.Y. Wang and Y.B. Lin, “NCTUnsNetwork Simulation and Emulation for Wireless Resource Management”, WileyWireless Communications and Mobile Computing,Vol.5, Issue 8, December 2005, pp. 899–916.

 S.Y. Wang, C.L. Chou, C.H. Huang,C.C. Hwang, Z.M. Yang, C.C. Chiou, and C.C. Lin, "The Design andImplementation of the NCTUns 1.0 Network Simulator", ComputerNetworks, Vol. 42, Issue 2, June 2003, pp. 175-197.

 S.Y. Wang, “NCTUns 1.0”, in the column “Software Tools forNetworking”, IEEE Networks, Vol. 17, No. 4, July 2003.

 S.Y. Wang and H.T. Kung, "ANew Methodology for Easily Constructing Extensible and High-Fidelity TCP/IPNetwork Simulators", Computer Networks, Vol. 40, Issue 2, October2002, pp. 257-278.

 S.Y. Wang and H.T. Kung, "ASimple Methodology for Constructing Extensible and High-Fidelity TCP/IP NetworkSimulators", IEEE INFOCOM'99, March 21-25, 1999, New York, USA.