Laboratory Course TLT-2500/TLT-2506: ns-2, 1.5 cr

TLT-2500/TLT-2506 Communication networks laboratory course

General notes and requirements

The ns-2 laboratory course is active all the year round.

The laboratory assignments must be done individually or in groups of 2 students.

Both parts must be successfully completed to get 1.5 cr.

You should leave your printed reports in report box 276: Tietotalo Building, 2nd floor.

The language of reports is English.

Your reports must contain your name, e-mail, and student ID.

Reading and useful links

The network simulator - ns-2 (official page);

The ns-2 manual (html);

Marc Greis's tutorial (highly recommended) (html);

NS by example (highly recommended) (html);

“NS simulator for beginners” by E. Altman and T. Jimenez (highly recommended) (course page and pdf).

M. Mathis, J. Semke, J. Mahdavi, and T. Ott. “The macroscopic behavior of the TCP congestion avoidance algorithm” (pdf). Computer Communication Review, volume 27, number 3, July 1997, pp. 67-82.

The awk script for computing the average RTT value is available from here.

How to run ns-2

Find a Lintula's workstation, for example, in room C215 or C217.

Use your account and password to login.

Create a work directory at /export/tlt/250x-ns2

To run ns-2, type the following command in the Terminal window:

ns file.tcl

where file.tcl is your script file.

* ns-2 is located in /usr/local/contrib/bin/

Note that you can also run ns-2 from your home.

Connect to kaarne.cs.tut.fi or mustakiuru.cs.tut.fi via a SSH connection (e.g., use PuTTY or SSH Tectia Client).

Do not forget to enable X11 tunneling and run XSession during simulations (e.g., use LabF WinaXe).

Part 1

The goal of this part is to get familiar with the ns-2 simulation environment.

Part 1 should be downloaded from here (pdf).

Follow the notes given in the assignment and answer all questions.

Put your printed report into report box 247.

Remove all trace files after successful completion of the assignment!

Part 2

The goal of this part is to conduct case studies dealing with: a) TCP and UDP ability to share available bandwidth; b) how router buffer size affects TCP and network performance; c) effect of parallel TCP connections on the link utilization.

Part 2 should be downloaded from here (pdf).

Follow the notes given in the assignment and answer all questions.

Put your printed report into report box 247.

Remove all trace files after successful completion of the assignment!

Contact information

Roman Dunaytsev, feel free to contact me by e-mail: dunaytse@cs.tut.fi

Last modified: February 1, 2011