In this tutorial, we are going to create some nodes and then enable the flow of traffic on those nodes. There are two ways to flow the traffic i.e. through TCP and UDP. We will use both in this tutorial.
#Create a simulator object
set ns [new Simulator]
#Define different colors for data flows (for NAM)
$ns color 1 Blue
$ns color 2 Red
$ns color 3 Black
#Open the NAM trace file
set nf [open out.nam w]
$ns namtrace-all $nf
#Define a 'finish' procedure
proc finish {} {
global ns nf
$ns flush-trace
#Close the NAM trace file
close $nf
#Execute NAM on the trace file
exec nam out.nam &
exit 0
}
#Create four nodes
set n0 [$ns node]
set n1 [$ns node]
set n2 [$ns node]
set n3 [$ns node]
$n3 shape "square"
$n3 color "black"
$n0 shape "square"
$n0 color "blue"
#Create links between the nodes
$ns duplex-link $n0 $n2 2Mb 10ms DropTail
$ns duplex-link $n1 $n2 2Mb 10ms RED
$ns duplex-link $n2 $n3 1.7Mb 20ms RED
$ns duplex-link-op $n0 $n2 color "blue"
$ns duplex-link-op $n0 $n2 label "cs-study"
$ns duplex-link-op $n1 $n2 color "green"
$ns duplex-link-op $n1 $n2 label "easylearning"
#Set Queue Size of link (n2-n3) to 10
$ns queue-limit $n2 $n3 10
#Give node position (for NAM)
$ns duplex-link-op $n0 $n2 orient right-down
$ns duplex-link-op $n1 $n2 orient right-up
$ns duplex-link-op $n2 $n3 orient right
#Monitor the queue for link (n2-n3). (for NAM)
$ns duplex-link-op $n2 $n3 queuePos 0.5
#Setup a TCP connection
set tcp [new Agent/TCP]
$tcp set class_ 3
$ns attach-agent $n0 $tcp
set sink [new Agent/TCPSink]
$ns attach-agent $n3 $sink
$ns connect $tcp $sink
$tcp set fid_ 1
#Setup a FTP over TCP connection
set ftp [new Application/FTP]
$ftp attach-agent $tcp
$ftp set type_ FTP
#Setup a UDP connection
set udp [new Agent/UDP]
$ns attach-agent $n1 $udp
set null [new Agent/Null]
$ns attach-agent $n3 $null
$ns connect $udp $null
$udp set fid_ 2
#Setup a CBR over UDP connection
set cbr [new Application/Traffic/CBR]
$cbr attach-agent $udp
$cbr set type_ CBR
$cbr set packet_size_ 1000
$cbr set rate_ 1mb
$cbr set random_ false
#Schedule events for the CBR and FTP agents
$ns at 0.1 "$cbr start"
$ns at 1.0 "$ftp start"
$ns at 4.0 "$ftp stop"
$ns at 4.5 "$cbr stop"
#Detach tcp and sink agents (not really necessary)
$ns at 4.5 "$ns detach-agent $n0 $tcp ; $ns detach-agent $n3 $sink"
#Call the finish procedure after 5 seconds of simulation time
$ns at 5.0 "finish"
#Print CBR packet size and interval
puts "CBR packet size = [$cbr set packet_size_]"
puts "CBR interval = [$cbr set interval_]"
#Run the simulation
$ns run
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The output of the above code is as follows. Run the program by typing ‘ns trafficflow.tcl’ in terminal.
After it gets executed, the following output is displayed in nam.
Now, click on the Play button which is underlined green.
We can see the traffic flow as well as the traffic which are being dropped on node 2 because the limits of the node to hold the packets is limited. Thats why when the queue is full and there is no more capacity available, the packet drops.
The little bars below the link between node 2 and node 3 indicates the acknowledgement that is being sent from node 3 to node 0 because it is using TCP.
Code Explained:
set ns [new Simulator]: generates an NS simulator object instance, and assigns it to variable ns.
The "Simulator" object has member functions that do the following:
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Create compound objects such as nodes and links (described later)
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Connect network component objects created (ex. attach-agent)
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Set network component parameters (mostly for compound objects)
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Create connections between agents (ex. make connection between a "tcp" and "sink")
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Specify NAM display options
Most of member functions are for simulation setup (referred to as plumbing functions in the Overview section) and scheduling, however some of them are for the NAM display. The "Simulator" object member function implementations are located in the "ns-2/tcl/lib/ns-lib.tcl" file.
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$ns namtrace-all file-descriptor: This member function tells the simulator to record simulation traces in NAM input format. It also gives the file name that the trace will be written to later by the command $ns flush-trace. Similarly, the member function trace-all is for recording the simulation trace in a general format.
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set n0 [$ns node]: The member function node creates a node. A node in NS is compound object made of address and port classifiers (described in a later section). Users can create a node by separately creating an address and a port classifier objects and connecting them together. However, this member function of Simulator object makes the job easier. To see how a node is created, look at the files: "ns-2/tcl/libs/ns-lib.tcl" and "ns-2/tcl/libs/ns-node.tcl".
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$ns duplex-link node1 node2 bandwidth delay queue-type: creates two simplex links of specified bandwidth and delay, and connects the two specified nodes. In NS, the output queue of a node is implemented as a part of a link, therefore users should specify the queue-type when creating links. In the above simulation script, DropTail queue is used. If the reader wants to use a RED queue, simply replace the word DropTail with RED. The NS implementation of a link is shown in a later section. Like a node, a link is a compound object, and users can create its sub-objects and connect them and the nodes. Link source codes can be found in "ns-2/tcl/libs/ns-lib.tcl" and "ns-2/tcl/libs/ns-link.tcl" files. One thing to note is that you can insert error modules in a link component to simulate a lossy link (actually users can make and insert any network objects). Refer to the NS documentation to find out how to do this.
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$ns queue-limit node1 node2 number: This line sets the queue limit of the two simplex links that connect node1 and node2 to the number specified. At this point, the authors do not know how many of these kinds of member functions of Simulator objects are available and what they are. Please take a look at "ns-2/tcl/libs/ns-lib.tcl" and "ns-2/tcl/libs/ns-link.tcl", or NS documentation for more information.
Now that the basic network setup is done, the next thing to do is to setup traffic agents such as TCP and UDP, traffic sources such as FTP and CBR, and attach them to nodes and agents respectively.
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set tcp [new Agent/TCP]: This line shows how to create a TCP agent. But in general, users can create any agent or traffic sources in this way. Agents and traffic sources are in fact basic objects (not compound objects), mostly implemented in C++ and linked to OTcl. Therefore, there are no specific Simulator object member functions that create these object instances. To create agents or traffic sources, a user should know the class names these objects (Agent/TCP, Agnet/TCPSink, Application/FTP and so on). This information can be found in the NS documentation or partly in this documentation. But one shortcut is to look at the "ns-2/tcl/libs/ns-default.tcl" file. This file contains the default configurable parameter value settings for available network objects. Therefore, it works as a good indicator of what kind of network objects are available in NS and what are the configurable parameters.
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$ns attach-agent node agent: The attach-agent member function attaches an agent object created to a node object. Actually, what this function does is call the attach member function of specified node, which attaches the given agent to itself. Therefore, a user can do the same thing by, for example, $n0 attach $tcp. Similarly, each agent object has a member function attach-agent that attaches a traffic source object to itself.
Assuming that all the network configuration is done, the next thing to do is write a simulation scenario (i.e. simulation scheduling). The Simulator object has many scheduling member functions. However, the one that is mostly used is the following:
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$ns at time "string": This member function of a Simulator object makes the scheduler (scheduler_ is the variable that points the scheduler object created by [new Scheduler] command at the beginning of the script) to schedule the execution of the specified string at given simulation time. For example, $ns at 0.1 "$cbr start" will make the scheduler call a start member function of the CBR traffic source object, which starts the CBR to transmit data. In NS, usually a traffic source does not transmit actual data, but it notifies the underlying agent that it has some amount of data to transmit, and the agent, just knowing how much of the data to transfer, creates packets and sends them.
After all network configuration, scheduling and post-simulation procedure specifications are done, the only thing left is to run the simulation. This is done by $ns run.
