Package: ns3
The Network Simulator, Version 3Table of ContentsOverviewBuilding ns-3Testing ns-3Running ns-3ns-3 DocumentationWorking with the Development Version of ns-3Contributing to ns-3Reporting Issuesns-3 App StoreNOTE: Much more substantial information about ns-3 can be found athttps://www.nsnam.orgOverview: An Open Source Projectns-3 is a free open source project aiming to build a discrete-event
network simulator targeted for simulation research and education.
This is a collaborative project; we hope that
the missing pieces of the models we have not yet implemented
will be contributed by the community in an open collaboration
process. If you would like to contribute to ns-3, please check
theContributing to ns-3section below.This README excerpts some details from a more extensive
tutorial that is maintained at:https://www.nsnam.org/documentation/latest/Building ns-3The code for the framework and the default models provided
by ns-3 is built as a set of libraries. User simulations
are expected to be written as simple programs that make
use of these ns-3 libraries.To build the set of default libraries and the example
programs included in this package, you need to use thens3tool. This tool provides a Waf-like API to the
underlying CMake build manager.
Detailed information on how to usens3is included in thequick start guide.Before building ns-3, you must configure it.
This step allows the configuration of the build options,
such as whether to enable the examples, tests and more.To configure ns-3 with examples and tests enabled,
run the following command on the ns-3 main directory:./ns3configure--enable-examples--enable-testsThen, build ns-3 by running the following command:./ns3buildBy default, the build artifacts will be stored in thebuild/directory.Supported PlatformsThe current codebase is expected to build and run on the
set of platforms listed in therelease notesfile.Other platforms may or may not work: we welcome patches to
improve the portability of the code to these other platforms.Testing ns-3ns-3 contains test suites to validate the models and detect regressions.
To run the test suite, run the following command on the ns-3 main directory:./test.pyMore information about ns-3 tests is available in thetest frameworksection of the manual.Running ns-3On recent Linux systems, once you have built ns-3 (with examples
enabled), it should be easy to run the sample programs with the
following command, such as:./ns3runsimple-global-routingThat program should generate asimple-global-routing.trtext
trace file and a set ofsimple-global-routing-xx-xx.pcapbinary
PCAP trace files, which can be read bytcpdump -n -tt -r filename.pcap.
The program source can be found in theexamples/routingdirectory.Running ns-3 from PythonIf you do not plan to modify ns-3 upstream modules, you can get
a pre-built version of the ns-3 python bindings.pipinstall--userns3If you do not havepip, check their documents
onhow to install it.After installing thens3package, you can then create your simulation python script.
Below is a trivial demo script to get you started.fromnsimportnsns.LogComponentEnable("Simulator",ns.LOG_LEVEL_ALL)ns.Simulator.Stop(ns.Seconds(10))ns.Simulator.Run()ns.Simulator.Destroy()The simulation will take a while to start, while the bindings are loaded.
The script above will print the logging messages for the called commands.Usehelp(ns)to check the prototypes for all functions defined in the
ns3 namespace. To get more useful results, query specific classes of
interest and their functions e.g.,help(ns.Simulator).Smart pointersPtr<>can be differentiated from objects by checking if__deref__is listed indir(variable). To dereference the pointer,
usevariable.__deref__().Most ns-3 simulations are written in C++ and the documentation is
oriented towards C++ users. The ns-3 tutorial programs (first.cc,second.cc, etc.) have Python equivalents, if you are looking for
some initial guidance on how to use the Python API. The Python
API may not be as full-featured as the C++ API, and an API guide
for what C++ APIs are supported or not from Python do not currently exist.
The project is looking for additional Python maintainers to improve
the support for future Python users.ns-3 DocumentationOnce you have verified that your build of ns-3 works by running
thesimple-global-routingexample as outlined in therunning ns-3section, it is quite likely that you will want to get started on reading
some ns-3 documentation.All of that documentation should always be available from
the ns-3 website:https://www.nsnam.org/documentation/.This documentation includes:a tutoriala reference manualmodels in the ns-3 model librarya wiki for user-contributed tips:https://www.nsnam.org/wiki/API documentation generated using doxygen: this is
a reference manual, most likely not very well suited
as introductory text:https://www.nsnam.org/doxygen/index.htmlWorking with the Development Version of ns-3If you want to download and use the development version of ns-3, you
need to use the toolgit. A quick and dirty cheat sheet is included
in the manual, but reading through the Git
tutorials found in the Internet is usually a good idea if you are not
familiar with it.If you have successfully installed Git, you can get
a copy of the development version with the following command:gitclonehttps://gitlab.com/nsnam/ns-3-dev.gitHowever, we recommend to follow the GitLab guidelines for starters,
that includes creating a GitLab account, forking the ns-3-dev project
under the new account's name, and then cloning the forked repository.
You can find more information in themanual.Contributing to ns-3The process of contributing to the ns-3 project varies with
the people involved, the amount of time they can invest
and the type of model they want to work on, but the current
process that the project tries to follow is described in thecontributing codewebsite and in theCONTRIBUTING.mdfile.Reporting IssuesIf you would like to report an issue, you can open a new issue in theGitLab issue tracker.
Before creating a new issue, please check if the problem that you are facing
was already reported and contribute to the discussion, if necessary.ns-3 App StoreThe officialns-3 App Storeis a centralized directory
listing third-party modules for ns-3 available on the Internet.More information on how to submit an ns-3 module to the ns-3 App Store is available
in thens-3 App Store documentation.