Simulating networks with ns-3

Data centers and cloud networks span across a large number of nodes. Network topologies and applications of that scale often can be tested first in simulations to ensure that early results are verified quick before an extensive deployment and testing in a more realistic emulation or a physical test bench. In this recipe, we will learn to simulate network systems with ns-3.

Getting ready

First download ns-3 from https://www.nsnam.org/ns-3-26/download/. We are using ns-3.26 in this recipe. Extract the downloaded archive and run from the root directory ns-allinone-3.26:

$ ./build.py.

Since the allinone folder contains all the bundles, this build will consume a few minutes.

It shows the following upon the completion of the build:

'build' finished successfully (14m22.645s)Modules built:antenna                   aodv                      applications      bridge                    buildings                 config-store      core                      csma               ...