1. MOBSIM An Integrated Simulation Platform for the
Evaluation of Mobile Radio Networks
ADT Activity report
October/2011 – June/2012
14 September 2019
PLANETE Group
Inria Sophia Antipolis   Méditerranée
ns-3 – Small introduction

2. Summary MOBSIM ADT Objectives ns-3 simulator
My role on MOBSIM and problems we are targeting
BAKE
Project advancement
Plan for the next year
Conclusions
MOBSIM 2

3. Introduction MOBSIM Objectives
Create an integrate simulation platform for the evaluation of mobile radio and sensor networks
Reinforce the position of INRIA as supporter and contributor of the open source software movement
MOBSIM 3

4. Who is involved Planete team – INRIA Sophia Antipolis
Specialist in networks simulation and large scale networks
Tasks
Ns-3 distributed build tool
Project management
Socrate team – INRIA Rhône-Alpes
Specialist on physical layer transmissions
Propagation model for the physical layer simulation in ns-3
Hipercom team – INRIA Paris – Rocquencourt
Specialists on access control and routing
MAC layer modeling – (EY-NPMA - Elimination Yield Non-pre-emptive Multiple Access)
Geographic and opportunistic routing

5. ns-3 - Network Simulator
ns-3 is an open source, C++ based, GPL licensed and highly used network simulator
It was re-written from “scratch” with the purpose of being a new kind of simulator
Ns-3 is :
Scalable
Modular
Designed for Real-world Integration
MOBSIM 5

6. My roles on MOBSIM
Create a distributed building tool for easier integration of new modules to ns-3
BAKE
Foment the collaboration
Search for new cooperation fields
Work with others towards feasible solutions
Project management
Follow the work done on the ADT as a whole
Organize meetings
Create and update the project’s page
MOBSIM 6

7. The problem we are targeting
The build of ns-3 and its modules
How ns-3 build works today
Ns-3 is an open source project, with developers distributed all around the world. Each one is free to use different development tools (i.e. CVS, Mercurial, git, autotools, Make, waf….)
The build of ns-3, and the integration of new modules, is done manually by the user. It is his responsibility download each one of the required modules, to have all the tools required by the modules, and track all the dependencies a given module has
Why it is hard
Newbie users have absolute no idea what they want/need
Expert users and developers quite often need to set up a complex scenario to perform their experiments or track a bug
Who is concerned by this
Any user, newbies, average and advanced ns-3 users
MOBSIM 7

8. BAKE
What it is bake
An integration tool to automate reproducible build of a number of projects which depend on each other and which might be developed, and hosted by unrelated parties
Developed in Python
Two components
Server, where the interested people will be able to go get the descriptions of available modules
Client, used to read the description file and build the target modules
MOBSIM 8

9. MOBSIM 9

10. Bake Developers community Simulator User MOBSIM
1. Developers: Add modules
Developers community
2. User: Selects Interesting Modules
3. User: Gets description file
Simulator User
5. User: Makes the build of the all independent modules
4. User: uses bake client to retrieve the modules. Each selected module, and its dependencies are searched independently
MOBSIM 10

11. Contiki over ns-3 Project was born from a real need
Application of Hipercom protocols over sensor and vehicular networks
Inria have a set of applications on Contiki (e.g. project ocari)
Socrate group also has interest on applying their models over sensor networks
Contiki-ns-3
Contiki is an open source Operating System for sensor networks
Portable to a number of platforms
Will natively run over ns-3 simulated networks
Many instances of Contiki
Possibility to use the Contiki stack or ns-3 stack
Student from Ryerson University – Canada, mentored by Planete in collaboration with Hipercom
MOBSIM 11

12. Project Advancement MOBSIM Main targets: Defined Milestones:
In 6 months: have a version that is stable and able to build ns-3
Done on the schedule
In 12 months: have the tool adopted by ns-3 consortium
Bake should be adopted by the ns-3 project in August
Defined Milestones:
Download modules described over an XML and recognize dependencies
Forecasted time: T0 (1 month) - Real time: 1 Month
Build downloaded modules with correct management of errors and optional dependencies
Forecasted time: T2 (1 month) - Real time: 1 Month
Server web to store the modules data in a databases and conversion to XML
Forecasted time: T3 (1 month) - Real time: 1 Month
Server web that is able to handle multi-users and rights of the users
Forecasted time: T4 (1 month) - Real time: Got for “free” with the development framework adopted
Add search capabilities to the web server
Forecasted time: T4 (1 month) - Real time: 1 week
Integration of the server with other tools used by the ns-3 project (e.g. Bugzilla)
Forecasted time: T5 (1 month) - Real time: Postponed in detriment of other functionalities
Integration of the server and client applications to store results on the databases
Forecasted time: T5 (1 month) - Real time: 1 Month
MOBSIM 12

13. Work done over the year MOBSIM Regular activities
Activity/Months
Oct / Nov
Dec / Jan
Feb / Mar
Apr / May
Jun / Jul
Aug / Sep
Project Follow-up and page
Formation
Definition of the architecture
Client side Bake
Preparation project meeting
Poster for the ns-3 workshop
Developers meeting
Server side Bake
Google Summer of Code
Adaptation of Contiki
Bugfixing of Bake Client
Functionalities Bake server
Regular activities
Background activities
MOBSIM 13

14. Proposal for the Next year
Consolidation of the support of sensor networks for ns-3
Contiki ns-3 integration
Duration: October 2012 – May 2013
MOBSIM modules integration in ns-3
Duration: June 2013 –August 2013
Academic publications
Duration: August 2013 – September 2013
Coordination of the project activities
Duration: October 2012 –September 2013
MOBSIM 14

15. Conclusions MOBSIM The main objectives have been reached
We hope BAKE will be adopted by ns-3 right on the next version
Teams work in synergy and together searching for solutions for the project and trying to see new research opportunities
The Contiki integration to ns-3 is a good example
MOBSIM has attracted interest from others
Bake presented at the ns-3 developers meeting
Poster at the ns-3 Workshop
International collaborations have been discussed with:
Bucknell University – EUA (Utilization of BAKE)
Keio University/NICT – Japan (Utilization of BAKE)
Ryerson University – Canada (Adaptation of Contiki)
MOBSIM 15

16. Questions? MOBSIM An Integrated Simulation Platform for the
Evaluation of Mobile Radio Networks
ADT Activity report
October/2011 – June/2012
14 September 2019
PLANETE Group
Inria Sophia Antipolis   Méditerranée
ns-3 – Small introduction

17. Small tour over the software
User interface
Administration interface
MOBSIM 17

18. Ns- 3 Advantages ns-3 – Small introduction Scalable
Packets can have ”virtual zero bytes” (or dummy bytes)
For dummy application data that we don't care about
No memory is allocated for virtual zero bytes
Reduces the memory footprint of the simulation
Real-world Integration
Packets can be saved to PCAP files, in a real format
Many tools can read PCAP files, e.g. Wireshark
Real-time scheduler
Simulation events synchronized to ”wall clock time”
”Network Simulation Cradle”
Run Linux Kernel TCP/IP stack under simulation Linux , Linux
DCE – Direct Code Execution
Can run applications over ns3
Integration into testbed and virtual machine environments
EmuNetDevice: Send/Receive data from/to simulation from/to real world
Tap NetDevice: allows a “real” host to participate in an ns-3 simulation as if it were one of the simulated nodes
ns-3 – Small introduction 18

19. Usage
From the point of view of Bake users, there are two steps to fulfill using the tool
There is a first access to the server, where one will be able to download a customized version of a configuration file
This part is being be fully developed and maintained by INRIA
The second step is feeding the client side of Bake with the download description file
The client side will be responsible for downloading the required modules (and dependencies) and after that building the interdependent modules in the right order.
The client part is being developed by the ns-3 community, with the participation of the Planete group.
MOBSIM 19

20. What has already been done - Client
The client part is mostly done
In Python
Developed by Mathieu Lacage
Missing
Work on the compatibility with cygwin and MacOS
Detect already installed version
Detect dependency loops
MOBSIM 20

21. What has already been done - Server
The client/server approach is a key aspect of Bake
It permits that the creation of a very light server
Promotes compatibility with the user’s environment
Server contains only the meta information and builds the customized description file on demand
The community will “decide” what is good or not
We have already a working beta version
Build in Django
Major missing parts
Dependencies
Support to inline code
Detect dependency loops
Downloadable description file
MOBSIM 21

22. What has already been done - Server
We have already a working beta version
Build in Django
Major missing parts
Dependencies
Support to inline code
Detect dependency loops
Downloadable description file
MOBSIM 22

23. Bake Server Already working User and administration interfaces
Users administration CRUD
Create, Retrieve, Update, Delete
Modules CRUD
To add a new module user has to be logged
News
Search
By key words and categories
User rating of modules
User comments on the modules
Generation of the description file
List of best voted and most downloaded modules
MOBSIM 23