SimpleSimulationExample

ThissectionshowsasimpleNSsimulationscriptandexplainswhateachlinedoes.Example3isan
OTclscriptthatcreatesthesimplenetworkconfigurationandrunsthesimulationscenarioinFigure4.
Torunthissimulation,download"nssimple.tcl"andtype"nsnssimple.tcl"atyourshellprompt.

Figure4.ASimpleNetworkTopologyandSimulationScenario
Thisnetworkconsistsof4nodes(n0,n1,n2,n3)asshowninabovefigure.Theduplexlinksbetween
n0andn2,andn1andn2have2Mbpsofbandwidthand10msofdelay.Theduplexlinkbetweenn2
andn3has1.7Mbpsofbandwidthand20msofdelay.EachnodeusesaDropTailqueue,ofwhichthe
maximumsizeis10.A"tcp"agentisattachedton0,andaconnectionisestablishedtoatcp"sink"
agentattachedton3.Asdefault,themaximumsizeofapacketthata"tcp"agentcangenerateis
1KByte.Atcp"sink"agentgeneratesandsendsACKpacketstothesender(tcpagent)andfreesthe
receivedpackets.A"udp"agentthatisattachedton1isconnectedtoa"null"agentattachedton3.A
"null"agentjustfreesthepacketsreceived.A"ftp"anda"cbr"trafficgeneratorareattachedto"tcp"
and"udp"agentsrespectively,andthe"cbr"isconfiguredtogenerate1KBytepacketsattherateof1
Mbps.The"cbr"issettostartat0.1secandstopat4.5sec,and"ftp"issettostartat1.0secandstop
at4.0sec.


Example3.ASimpleNSSimulationScript
Thefollowingistheexplanationofthescriptabove.Ingeneral,anNSscriptstartswithmakinga
Simulatorobjectinstance.
setns[newSimulator]:generatesanNSsimulatorobjectinstance,andassignsittovariablens
(italicsisusedforvariablesandvaluesinthissection).Whatthislinedoesisthefollowing:

Initializethepacketformat(ignorethisfornow)
Createascheduler(defaultiscalendarscheduler)
Selectthedefaultaddressformat(ignorethisfornow)

The"Simulator"objecthasmemberfunctionsthatdothefollowing:

Createcompoundobjectssuchasnodesandlinks(describedlater)
Connectnetworkcomponentobjectscreated(ex.attachagent)
Setnetworkcomponentparameters(mostlyforcompoundobjects)
Createconnectionsbetweenagents(ex.makeconnectionbetweena"tcp"and"sink")
SpecifyNAMdisplayoptions
Etc.

Mostofmemberfunctionsareforsimulationsetup(referredtoasplumbingfunctionsinthe
Overviewsection)andscheduling,howeversomeofthemarefortheNAMdisplay.The
"Simulator"objectmemberfunctionimplementationsarelocatedinthe"ns2/tcl/lib/nslib.tcl"
file.

$nscolorfidcolor:istosetcolorofthepacketsforaflowspecifiedbytheflowid(fid).This
memberfunctionof"Simulator"objectisfortheNAMdisplay,andhasnoeffectontheactual
simulation.

$nsnamtraceallfiledescriptor:Thismemberfunctiontellsthesimulatortorecordsimulation
tracesinNAMinputformat.Italsogivesthefilenamethatthetracewillbewrittentolaterby
thecommand$nsflushtrace.Similarly,thememberfunctiontraceallisforrecordingthe
simulationtraceinageneralformat.


procfinish{}:iscalledafterthissimulationisoverbythecommand$nsat5.0"finish".Inthis
function,postsimulationprocessesarespecified.

setn0[$nsnode]:Thememberfunctionnodecreatesanode.AnodeinNSiscompoundobject
madeofaddressandportclassifiers(describedinalatersection).Userscancreateanodeby
separatelycreatinganaddressandaportclassifierobjectsandconnectingthemtogether.
However,thismemberfunctionofSimulatorobjectmakesthejobeasier.Toseehowanodeis
created,lookatthefiles:"ns2/tcl/libs/nslib.tcl"and"ns2/tcl/libs/nsnode.tcl".

$nsduplexlinknode1node2bandwidthdelayqueuetype:createstwosimplexlinksof
specifiedbandwidthanddelay,andconnectsthetwospecifiednodes.InNS,theoutputqueue
ofanodeisimplementedasapartofalink,thereforeusersshouldspecifythequeuetypewhen
creatinglinks.Intheabovesimulationscript,DropTailqueueisused.Ifthereaderwantstouse
aREDqueue,simplyreplacethewordDropTailwithRED.TheNSimplementationofalinkis
showninalatersection.Likeanode,alinkisacompoundobject,anduserscancreateitssub
objectsandconnectthemandthenodes.Linksourcecodescanbefoundin"ns2/tcl/libs/ns
lib.tcl"and"ns2/tcl/libs/nslink.tcl"files.Onethingtonoteisthatyoucaninserterrormodules
inalinkcomponenttosimulatealossylink(actuallyuserscanmakeandinsertanynetwork
objects).RefertotheNSdocumentationtofindouthowtodothis.

$nsqueuelimitnode1node2number:Thislinesetsthequeuelimitofthetwosimplexlinks
thatconnectnode1andnode2tothenumberspecified.Atthispoint,theauthorsdonotknow
howmanyofthesekindsofmemberfunctionsofSimulatorobjectsareavailableandwhatthey
are.Pleasetakealookat"ns2/tcl/libs/nslib.tcl"and"ns2/tcl/libs/nslink.tcl",orNS
documentationformoreinformation.

$nsduplexlinkopnode1node2...:ThenextcoupleoflinesareusedfortheNAMdisplay.To
seetheeffectsoftheselines,userscancommenttheselinesoutandtrythesimulation.
Nowthatthebasicnetworksetupisdone,thenextthingtodoistosetuptrafficagentssuchasTCP
andUDP,trafficsourcessuchasFTPandCBR,andattachthemtonodesandagentsrespectively.
settcp[newAgent/TCP]:ThislineshowshowtocreateaTCPagent.Butingeneral,userscan
createanyagentortrafficsourcesinthisway.Agentsandtrafficsourcesareinfactbasic
objects(notcompoundobjects),mostlyimplementedinC++andlinkedtoOTcl.Therefore,
therearenospecificSimulatorobjectmemberfunctionsthatcreatetheseobjectinstances.To
createagentsortrafficsources,ausershouldknowtheclassnamestheseobjects(Agent/TCP,
Agnet/TCPSink,Application/FTPandsoon).ThisinformationcanbefoundintheNS
documentationorpartlyinthisdocumentation.Butoneshortcutistolookatthe"ns
2/tcl/libs/nsdefault.tcl"file.Thisfilecontainsthedefaultconfigurableparametervaluesettings
foravailablenetworkobjects.Therefore,itworksasagoodindicatorofwhatkindofnetwork
objectsareavailableinNSandwhataretheconfigurableparameters.

$nsattachagentnodeagent:Theattachagentmemberfunctionattachesanagentobjectcreated
toanodeobject.Actually,whatthisfunctiondoesiscalltheattachmemberfunctionof
specifiednode,whichattachesthegivenagenttoitself.Therefore,ausercandothesamething
by,forexample,$n0attach$tcp.Similarly,eachagentobjecthasamemberfunctionattach
agentthatattachesatrafficsourceobjecttoitself.

$nsconnectagent1agent2:Aftertwoagentsthatwillcommunicatewitheachotherarecreated,
thenextthingistoestablishalogicalnetworkconnectionbetweenthem.Thislineestablishesa
networkconnectionbysettingthedestinationaddresstoeachothers'networkandportaddress
pair.

Assumingthatallthenetworkconfigurationisdone,thenextthingtodoiswriteasimulationscenario
(i.e.simulationscheduling).TheSimulatorobjecthasmanyschedulingmemberfunctions.However,
theonethatismostlyusedisthefollowing:
$nsattime"string":ThismemberfunctionofaSimulatorobjectmakesthescheduler
(scheduler_isthevariablethatpointstheschedulerobjectcreatedby[newScheduler]
commandatthebeginningofthescript)toscheduletheexecutionofthespecifiedstringat
givensimulationtime.Forexample,$nsat0.1"$cbrstart"willmaketheschedulercallastart
memberfunctionoftheCBRtrafficsourceobject,whichstartstheCBRtotransmitdata.InNS,
usuallyatrafficsourcedoesnottransmitactualdata,butitnotifiestheunderlyingagentthatit
hassomeamountofdatatotransmit,andtheagent,justknowinghowmuchofthedatato
transfer,createspacketsandsendsthem.
Afterallnetworkconfiguration,schedulingandpostsimulationprocedurespecificationsaredone,the
onlythingleftistorunthesimulation.Thisisdoneby$nsrun.