Wireless and Mobility Extensions to ns-2

The Rice Monarch Project has made substantial extensions to the ns-2 network simulator that enable it to accurately simulate mobile nodes connected by wireless network interfaces, including the ability to simulate multi-hop wireless ad hoc networks.

ad-hockey for Perl/Tk800.015

A new version of ad-hockey is available!. This new version runs with Perl/Tk800.015 (available via the Perl/Tk FAQ)

Older versions of ad-hockey would freeze up after hitting the start button unless they were run with Perl/Tk400.200. The snapshot itself still contains the old ad-hockey, and so Perl/Tk400.200 is still available from our misc software page.

Snapshot 1.1.2 Feature List:

• Several fixes which should enable use on non-Intel x86 platforms
• Mobile Nodes with programmable trajectories
• Complete implementation of the IEEE 802.11 DCF MAC protocol
• Complete implementation of the Address Resolution Procotol (ARP)
• Implemenations of the following multi-hop ad hoc network routing protocols:
  • Dynamic Source Routing(DSR)
  • Destination Sequenced Distance Vector(DSDV)
  • Temporally Ordered Routing Algorithm (TORA)
  • Ad hoc On-demand Distance Vector (AODV)
• Wireless network interface modeling the Lucent WaveLAN DSSS radio
• Modeling of signal attenuation, collision, and capture
• Two Ray Ground Reflection radio propagation model
• Visualization tool for creating scenario files and playing back simulation traces
• A calcdest program that annotates scenario files generated by ad-hockey with the optimal path length information
• Trace analysis scripts for protocol evaluation
• Support for new MAC layers:
  • Model of the WaveLAN-I CSMA/CA MAC
  • ``Null'' MAC layer that provides NO collions, congestion, etc.
• Early support for ad hoc network emulation
• New features for ad-hockey, including
  • The ability to slave it to a running emulation
  • Ability to use jpegs as background images

Snapshots are not true releases of the Rice Monarch extensions, but a snapshot of the head of our current working source tree. Like Release 1.0.0-beta, the snapshot includes a complete ns-2 source tree containing the Rice Monarch extensions.

Snapshot 1.1.2 is available as a gzip'ed tar file: (released 8/11/99)

• http://www.monarch.cs.rice.edu/ftp/monarch/wireless-sim/cmu-extendedns-1.1.2.tar.gz
• Change information from Release 1.1.1

• The ns-allinone-2.1b3.tar.gz source distribution
• The corresponding base ns-2 documentation in PostScript or PDF

• Wireless and Mobility Extensions to ns (ps file) Revised 8/5/99
• ad-hockey Visualization Tool For Scenario and Trace Files (ps file)

Frequently Asked Questions

• Status and Bug Reports
• The ad-hockey visualizer
• Support Code and Utillities
• Data Analysis
• Configuring and Setting Up Simulations
• The Dynamic Source Routing Protocol This section is about both the simulator code, and the protocol itself.
• Misc.

Some answers to very frequently asked questions are here:

• If perl crashes when you try to build Perl/Tk400.200, see this suggestion to use the new version of ad-hockey.
• If you are having trouble building Perl/Tk400.200 with complaints about ``gv_fullname'' please see this suggestion.
• What do emulate and macfilter do?
• Using ad-hockey to generate scenarios for ns, and calcdest to produce ``god'' path optimality annotations.
• Can I use NAM?.
• ``command not found''.
• Frequently asked questions that shouldn't be.

• scen-[site size]-[num nodes]-[pause time]-[max velocity]-[scen num] --- a movement pattern
• cbr-[num nodes]-[num connections]-[pkts per sec]-[pkt size] --- a communication pattern using CBR sources

In general, we won't be able to be of much help in solving installation or initial compilation/use problems. We are a university research group doing basic research on networking protocols and ad hoc networks. We created our extensions to ns-2 as they were a critically important tool to support our research, and we are making them available in case they can help others as well. Unfortunately, we do not have the resources to provide basic technical support. Like the ns system itself, the code is very hands on, and anyone working with the system will need to spend a fair amount of time understanding the existing code base.

We do the majority of our development and testing on iX86 boxes running FreeBSD or Red Hat Linux, so you will have the fewest problems if you use one of those platforms. We are currently working with the core ns team at ISI to integrate our extensions into the base code, but until that happens we can not provide much support for other systems. The integration should be completed by second quarter 1999.

The vast majority of build and installation problems with Release 1.0.0 were reported by users with SPARC systems. Snapshot 1.1.0 includes several changes intended to allow the Rice Monarch extensions to run on platforms that require aligned memory accesses with out causing bus errors. We'd appreciate feedback from any SPARC users as to whether they still see bus errors coming from cmu-trace.cc and mac-802_11.cc.

For information on the e-mail mailing lists we have set up related to our research in the Rice Monarch Project and to our software distributions, see our mailing lists page.

Change List and Previous Releases

• Change information from Release 1.1.1

• Bug fixed which caused packets to be occasionally reordered by link layer
• Support for new MAC layers:
  • Model of the WaveLAN-I CSMA/CA MAC
  • ``Null'' MAC layer that provides NO collions, congestion, etc.
• Early support for ad hoc network emulation
• New features for ad-hockey, including
  • The ability to slave it to a running emulation
  • Ability to use jpegs as background images

Snapshot 1.1.0 is available as a gzip'ed tar file: DEPRECATED 8/5/99

• http://www.monarch.cs.rice.edu/ftp/monarch/wireless-sim/cmu-extendedns-1.1.0.tar.gz

Release 1.0.0-beta is still available as:

• http://www.monarch.cs.rice.edu/ftp/monarch/wireless-sim/cmu-extendedns-1.0.0-beta.tgz