A Comparative Analysis of Network Simulation Tools

Eric Gamess and Carlos Veracoechea

Escuela de Computación, Universidad Central de Venezuela, Caracas, Venezuela

i. Usability: Ease of installation and use. Availability of a

Abstract - Today, simulation has become a fundamental user-friendly GUI (Graphical User Interface).
tool for researchers and network administrators to design, ii. Object library: The availability of predefined models for
debug, improve and fine-tune networks. One of the main commercial network devices (e.g. Cisco, Juniper, etc)
problems faced by these specialists when selecting a and links (e.g. Ethernet, Serial, Fiber Optic, etc).
simulation tool is the variety of options. This converts the iii. Intended area of use: Main goal of the tool, that is, if the
selection in a complex and long process. In most cases, the tool is more suitable for network planning, designing
selection of the tool is done without following a suitable and evaluation, or for network protocol researching.
process which should include identifying needs, scopes, and iv. Type of license: Specify if the simulator is a commercial
constraints of the project. In this paper we studied a group of product or an open-source software. For commercial
network simulation tools to guide users during the selection products, simulators with an academic license or a
process. We focused on the level of support that these limited version are important.
simulation tools can offer to new telecommunications v. Level of reporting: The availability of advanced
technologies trends, and the amount of effort needed for reporting features, including the capability to generate
installation and familiarization. One of the goals of this paper and compare results in an easy way.
is to help researchers and network administrators to quickly vi. Documentation and learning curve: Documentation
identify which simulator is most suitable for their needs. considered includes academic books, manuals and
laboratories, which can help the self-learning process.
Keywords: Network Simulation Tools, Experimentation, vii. Supported protocols: Support for network protocols and
Modeling, Comparative Study, ns-2, QualNet, OPNET. especially emerging network protocols such as MPLS,
IPv6, VoIP, wireless and QoS.
1 Introduction viii. Traffic profile: The availability of different classes of
traffic patterns such as: CBR, FTP, telnet, voice, E-mail,
Network simulators are relatively fast and inexpensive HTTP, random variables, custom profile, etc.
compared to the time and cost involved in setting up an entire
testbed containing multiple computers, switches and routers. The rest of the paper is organized as follows. In Section 2, we
They are used by researchers and network administrators in discussed previous works. Section 3 contains a deep study and
many situations that include: planning and designing a description of three well-known network simulation tools.
network, securing resources, analyzing the effect of changing Conclusions and future work are discussed in Section 4.
various parameters on the network performance, testing of
scenarios that might be difficult or expensive to emulate using
real hardware, designing of new networking protocols or
2 Related Works
making change to existing protocols in a controlled and In his research work, Bernat [4] presented an approach to
reproducible environment. select simulation tools, as well as a categorization of such tools.
Nowadays, there are a wide variety of network simulation He initially selected a set of ten network simulators (AnyLogic,
tools, giving researchers and network administrators many Artifex, NetRule, Network II.5, ns-2, OMNeT++, OPNET
options to work with. However, this variety tends to hinder the Modeler, Predictor, QualNet Developer, and Scalable
selection process of the appropriate tool. Furthermore, Simulation Framework), and gradually discarded some of them
sometimes, researchers and network administrators are forced to finally make a deep study of OPNET Modeler, QualNet
to try several tools in order to find one that fulfill their needs, so Developer, and NetRule. After an extensive comparative and
they have to learn how to manipulate different tools and how to practical analysis, Bernat concluded that OPNET Modeler
interpret the obtained results, which is time consuming. provides: (1) the best model library, (2) a clear structured
In this paper, we present a comparative study to help in modeling approach that allows users to develop complex
selecting a network simulation tool for an academic models in a limited amount of time, (3) a comprehensive set of
environment, with supports for new trends in technologies, protocols, devices and network related objects
telecommunication technologies such as MPLS, IPv6, VoIP, based on the most recent standards, and (4) a user-friendly
wireless and QoS. Based on suggestions made by [2][9][17], we interface.
focus on the followings capabilities that a network simulation Lugones [16] made a study of different simulation tools in
tool must have: order to select the appropriate simulator for his research work.
He proposed some criteria to select network simulation tools usability and support, availability of documentation and
based on [9], and performed an evaluation of some simulators because they offer an open license or a special university
to finally made a description of the tools he selected (ns-2, program.
Network II.5 and OPNET Modeler). Lugones preferred
OPNET Modeler because it provides an environment for the 3.1 ns-2
design of network protocols and technologies, as well as tools ns-2 [13] (Network Simulator 2) is a discrete event network
for experimentations and analysis of different scenarios and simulator distributed under the GNU General Public License.
configurations. Lugones also concluded that OPNET Modeler ns-2 is popularly used in the simulation of TCP variants, and
enables robust simulations in all types of networks, through ad-hoc networking research. It is well-known in academia for
simple and intuitive modeling of its components. its extensibility (due to its open source license) and plentiful
Lessmann et al. [15] were interested in helping users in the online documentation.
selection process of a simulation tool for wireless networks. ns-2 is developed with Tcl, Tk, OTcl, TclCL and C++. Tcl
They focused their work in simulators with free license, (Tool Command Language) is a scripting language created by
selecting three well-established tools (J-Sim, OMNeT++, ns-2) John Ousterhout [20]. It is a very powerful dynamic
and a relatively new project (ShoX). They based their programming language, suitable for a very wide range of uses,
evaluation on feature set and usability provided by the tools, including web and desktop applications, networking,
such as: (1) installation, (2) implementation and administration and testing. Tk (Tool Kit) is a Tcl library of
documentation, (3) learning overhead, and (4) reported results. basic elements for building GUIs. OTcl (Object Tcl) is an
They concluded that none of the four simulators is a clear extension to the Tcl language for object-oriented programming
winner in all areas, even more each tool showed a relative weak that was developed at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of
criterion compared to the other candidates. Technology). TclCL is a Tcl/C++ interface, that is, it provides
Flores et al. [8] presented a comparative study of OPNET a layer to use C++ code from Tcl. ns-2 is a set of two programs
Modeler and ns-2 to provide a guide to researchers interested (ns and nam). The ns program reads a network model specified
on packet-level network simulations. To do so, they deployed in OTcl, either from a command-line interface or from a script
both CBR data traffics and FTP sessions, on a real testbed and file, and executes it. The outputs of ns are trace files. There are
the two simulators. For the experiments done, they concluded two formats of trace files, one where users collect the results of
that OPNET Modeler and ns-2 provides very similar results, the simulation (ns trace), and the other used by the nam
but the open license of ns-2 makes it more attractive to a program (nam trace). The nam program (Network Animator)
researcher. However, the large set of modules offered by reads the nam trace files and graphically displays the results of
OPNET Modeler provides more features than ns-2, and the simulation.
therefore, it is more suitable to network operators. To do a simulation, users start by creating nodes. The nodes
Mohorko et al. [17] presented a brief overview of suitable must be interconnected by links (half-duplex, full-duplex,
simulation tools available for education and research on LAN, etc). Then, agents must be attached to nodes. Agent/UDP
network technologies and protocols. They proposed some (source) and Agent/Null (destination) are used to create a UDP
criteria that a network simulator must fulfill, such as: (1) stream. Agent/TCP (source) and Agent/TCPSink (destination)
general demands, (2) implemented modules, (3) statistical are ends of a TCP stream. Then, traffic can be generated (CBR,
capabilities, (4) outlet reports, and (5) manufacturer help and HTTP, FTP, telnet, Exponential, Pareto, Trace). All the
support for end-users. They make a short discussion about specification of a simulation is done in an OTcl script.
available simulation tools in the market (OPNET Modeler,
OPNET IT Guru Academic Edition, Network II.5, Usability: We installed ns-2 from source files on a PC running
SES/Workbench, BONeS Designer, and COMNET III) and Linux (Debian Lenny v5.0.3). To do so, we followed the
presented their most important features. Based on the instruction at its web site3. We used g++ (GNU C++ Compiler)
experiences they had gained from over the last few years, they for the compilation and did not have any problem. Precompiled
concluded that the OPNET tools are appropriate for use in Windows version of ns-2 is also available 4 . To specify the
communication research activities and teaching objectives for network topology, most ns-2 users do it with OTcl, even
undergraduate and graduate programs. through basic graphical tools (gt-itm and sgb2ns) are available
for this purpose. nam is a very limited GUI to recreate the
network simulation graphically. All nodes and links defined in
3 Network Simulation Tools the simulation are shown and control buttons allow users to
There are many network simulators around. Andrea Rizzoli1 start, stop, and step forward and backward the simulation.
and Sally Floyd2 are maintaining up-to-date lists of such tools, When congestion occurs in a node, a stack of packets
while Bernat [4] did a study of ten network simulation tools. (representing a queue) will appear next to the node.
For our comparative analysis, three different tools were
Object library: With ns-2, users define nodes, and links
selected: ns-2, Qualnet Developer and OPNET IT Guru. We
(half-duplex, full-duplex, and LAN). A node with several links
chose these tools for their popularity [9], high-level of maturity,

1 3
http://www.idsia.ch/~andrea/sim/simnet.html http://www.isi.edu/nsnam/ns
2 4
http://www.icir.org/models/simulators.html http://www.item.ntnu.no/fag/ttm4150/labs/ns2win.html
will automatically act as an intermediate device (hub, switch, • Data-link layer: ARP, HDLC, GAF, MPLS, LDP,
or router) and forwards traffic to the destination. By default, 802.11b, 802.15.4 (WPAN), satellite Aloha.
these are no need to define a routing protocol, that is, • Network layer: IP, Mobile IP, IPinIP, SRM, AODV, DSR,
intermediate nodes will automatically know how to route DSDV, TORA, IMEP.
packets. A node attached to a unique link is an end-device that • Transport Layer: TCP (many variants), UDP, SCTP,
sends or receives traffic. When creating links, users define their XCP, TFRC, RAP, RTP, PGM, SRM, RLM, PLM.
bandwidth and delay. ns-2 does not have support for • Application layer: ping, vat, telnet, FTP, multicast FTP,
commercial network devices. HTTP, probabilistic and trace-driven traffic generators.
• Queuing: DiffServ, DropTail, RED, RIO, WFQ, SRR,
Intended area of use: ns-2 is used by researchers to study the
Semantic Packet Queue, REM, Priority, VQ.
implementation of a new protocol or the modification of
existing protocols for enhancements. In many cases, users Traffic Profile: ns-2 supports some traffic generators which
modify the source code of ns-2, recompile it, and rerun the simulate user data traffic, such as: CBR, ping, vat, telnet, FTP,
simulation to study the new behavior of the network traffic. multicast FTP, HTTP, trace-driven traffic generators, and
ns-2 is not designed to model a production network, and users some random variables (Exponential, Pareto).
who try to do so will have a hard time.
3.2 QualNet Developer
Type of license: ns-2 is a free open source project.
Scalable Network Technologies5 offers products for network
Level of reporting: ns-2 generates trace files. Users can parse modeling and simulation, network evaluation and network
the ns trace file, which is a table of 12 columns (Event, Time, planning. For modeling and simulation of networks, Scalable
FromNode, ToNode, PktType, PktSize, Flags, FID, SrcAddr, Network Technologies proposes QualNet Developer, a
DstAddr, SeqNum and PktID), to infer results. Column labeled commercial tool developed in C++ and derived from
Event can be r, +, -, and d, which correspond to received, GloMoSim6. GloMoSim is a packet-level simulator distributed
enqueued, dequeued, and dropped, respectively. Time is the under an academic open source license, based on PARSEC C7
time that the event occurs. FromNode and ToNode are the (a parallel simulation language for C), maintained by the
hop-by-hop origin and destination nodes. PktType and PktSize UCLA Parallel Computing Lab, and that only currently
are the type and size (in bytes) of packets. SrcAddr and DstAddr supports protocols for wireless network. Both (QualNet
are source and destination addresses (host-to-host). ns-2 does Developer and GloMoSim) run on parallel architectures, which
not used IP address. Instead, addresses are specified in the form can significantly reduce the simulation time for large networks.
node.port where node is an integer than uniquely identifier the QualNet Developer was initially developed as a command
node and port is the port number. With Unix tools such as grep, line simulator, but afterward it was improved with the
head, tail, cut, awk, perl, or even with their own C program, incorporation of a graphical interface. At the moment of the
users can infer the relevant information from the ns trace file. writing of the paper, the last version of QualNet Developer is
Documentation and learning curve: ns-2 is extensively used 5.0 (we tried version 4.5.1) and its main characteristics are:
by network researchers, so many tutorials [3][10][18] and
Usability: We installed QualNet Developer Evaluation version
papers can be found in the web. However, only a limited
4.5.1 on a PC running Windows XP SP3. To do so, we followed
amount of specialized books [13] are available. Since ns-2 is an
the process in the installation guide. Previously, it is necessary
open source network simulator, numerous contributed models
to download and install J2SE SDK (Java 2 Standard Edition
had been developed by the Internet community, but just few of
Software Development Kit) version 1.4.28 which is required to
them are documented and are actively maintained. It can take
run QualNet GUI. Even if J2SE SDK 1.4.2 reached the end of
some months, or some years, for a network researcher to get
its service life8, it can be downloaded from SUN Microsystems
familiar to ns-2. This is mostly due to the use of two languages
archive web site9 . We do not recommend users to install a
(Tcl and C++), to the lack of solid GUIs, and to the trace files
newer version of the Java SDK, since we initially tried with
which are not useful without additional processing. Another
Java SE Development Kit 6 update 18 and experimented some
important issue that extends the learning process is the selected
problems. To compile custom QualNet source code, Microsoft
languages. Nowadays, in most bachelors of computer sciences,
Visual C++, Microsoft Visual Studio or Microsoft Visual C++
students learn C, C++, or Java. So, in general, they are not
Express Edition10 is required. After the installation, the license
familiar to Tcl, OTcl, and TclCL. Before writing an advanced
file provided needs to be copied in directory
network simulation, these students will have to obtain the
c:\qualnet\4.5\license_dir. QualNet Developer is distributed with
necessary skills in Tcl, OTcl, and TclCL, which can represent
a complete installation guide and runs on Unix (Solaris),
an important learning overhead. Also, debugging with ns-2 is
Windows, Mac OS X and Linux (Fedora, RedHat Enterprise,
relatively hard because users need two different debuggers, one
for Tcl and the other one for C++. 5
http://www.scalable-networks.com
6
http://pcl.cs.ucla.edu/projects/glomosim
Supported protocols: ns-2 has models for many protocols that 7
http://pcl.cs.ucla.edu/projects/parsec
included: 8
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/download.html
9
http://java.sun.com/products/archive/j2se/1.4.2_19/index.html
10
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/visualc
SUSE) operating systems, as well as distributed and cluster note, user guide, installation guide, model library descriptions
parallel architectures, for both 32- and 64-bits. and a general product tour. There are a good variety of papers,
QualNet Developer was designed with a layered approach access to knowledge base and user forums, but a limited
similar to the one of a real network based on TCP/IP suite [19]. amount of useful tutorials. We just could find some exercises
Users can access and interact with the following layers: [6] but no specialized books. This can increase the time and
application, transport, network (Internet Protocol), data-link efforts needed for the self-learning process, but in general,
(medium access control), and physical. users will take advantage of QualNet Developer after few
QualNet Developer presents an easy and intuitive GUI, weeks.
which allows representing real networks in an easy way just by
dragging and dropping. Alternatively, it can be run from the Supported protocols: QualNet Developer offers a wide variety
command line. QualNet Developer has four modules: Scenario of supported protocols such as:
Designer (to create and modify networking scenarios, • Cellular and UMTS: Abstract, GSM, User behavior model
including its network components, links and applications), and 3G mobile networks.
Animator (to run simulations and animations), Analyzer (to • Developer: 802.3, Satellite, TCP, ARP, ATM,
analyze graphically the statistics collected during the Bellman-Ford routing, CBQ, CBR, FTP, HTTP, ICMP,
simulation), and Packet Tracer (to trace a per-packet analysis ICMPv6, IGMP, IPSec, IPv4, IPv6, LL6, MCBR, RIPng,
of the simulation). RIP, RIPv2, TCP, UDP, VBR.
• Military Radios: Compact Terrain Database Format
Object library: QualNet Developer only offers basic devices (CTDB) 7 and 8, Link 11 and 16 protocol.
like hubs, switches, routers or standard workstations that have • Multimedia and Enterprises: BGPv4, DiffServ, EIGRP,
to be individually configured. Just some models of Cisco and IGRP, H.323, H.225, MPLS, OSPF, SIP, QoS, VLAN,
Juniper routers are supported. For other vendor routers, users VoIP.
must take a generic router and specify the router backplane and • Sensor Networks: 802.15.4 (ZigBee).
buffer characteristics. Switch model is based on the IEEE 802.1 • Wireless: 802.11, 802.11a/b/g, Aloha, CSMA MAC,
standards and covers Level 2 switches and port-based VLANs. IERP, IARP, Mobile IPv4, TDMA, WiMAX.
Intended area of use: QualNet Developer is suitable for • Others: Network Security Library, Standard Interfaces
network planning and evaluation. With the supports of Packet Library (API), Satellite Library, Propagation Library
Tracer, it also fits protocol researching requirements, because it (ALE/ASAPS), TIREM, Urban (pathloss and terrain
provides packet-specific information (headers and fields). effect).

Type of license: Scalable Network Technologies offers the Traffic profile: The application layer of QualNet Developer
QUP (QualNet University Program) to academic researchers implements traffic generators which simulate user data traffic,
and professors, with 1-seat research licenses and multi-seat such as: FTP, telnet, CBR, MCBR, VBR, Abstract cellular
teaching licenses of QualNet Developer at substantially application, GSM, HTTP, VoIP and customs traffic profiles
reduced prices. QUP comes with the standard, MANET, and with the support of several random variables such as: Uniform,
QoS model libraries, but does not include the source code for all Exponential, Gaussian, Pareto and Deterministic.
protocols. 3.3 OPNET IT Guru
Level of reporting: QualNet Developer comes with Analyzer, OPNET Technologies 12 (Optimized Network Engineering
a graphing tool that displays predefined reports with statistical Tool) offers a wide variety of solutions for application
information at every protocol layer collected during simulation performance management, network engineering, operations,
of network scenarios, based on Ptolemy II 11 (a graphing and planning. Two of their most popular products are OPNET
package developed in Java). Also, there is the option to IT Guru and OPNET Modeler. OPNET Modeler allows users to
customize graphs with their own statistics. QualNet Developer analyze and design communication networks, devices,
offers the option to export all collected statistics to spreadsheets protocols, and applications. OPNET IT Guru is used by
in CSV format. networking professionals to better understand and predict
Packet Tracer allows a detailed investigation at packet level, network behavior. OPNET Modeler offers the functionality of
as a packet proceeds up and down a protocol stack, and across a OPNET IT Guru, and it is provided with the source code of
network. The GUI of Packet Tracer is divided into frames, protocol and technology models for network research and
showing the header fields of the packet, a summary of the development. The main differences are that OPNET IT Guru
simulation time, the originating protocol and the source and does not include a process editor, the possibilities of editing
destination nodes, and a hexadecimal representation of the code level in C language, and various advanced modules [17].
packet’s byte stream. That is, in OPNET IT Guru, users can not create new
communication models or change existing ones.
Documentation and learning curve: QualNet Developer
The last version of OPNET IT Guru is 16.0 PL1 and some of
comes with a good set of documentation including: release
its capabilities are described below:
11 12
http://ptolemy.eecs.berkeley.edu/java/ptplot http://www.opnet.com
 Documentation and learning curve: OPNET IT Guru comes
Usability: The installation of OPNET IT Guru is strait forward with a full set of documentation including: release note, user
in Windows. We downloaded four executables files (IT Guru guide, and tutorials. Also, users can find a good variety of
Application, Model Library, Model Library Updater, and textbooks [1][7][21][22][23][24], papers, tutorials [5][14], web
Documentation) from OPNET Technologies web site and trainings, user forums, FAQ and contributed models that help
installed them by double clicking and following the them during the self-training process. At the beginning, some
instructions. Once OPNET IT Guru was installed, we first had users can found themselves overwhelmed by the rich features of
to activate the license. OPNET IT Guru is available for OPNET IT Guru, but after doing some guided laboratories,
Windows and Linux. The installation process for Linux is not they will finish getting familiar to it. In [1], Emad Aboelela
as easy as in Windows, so users should consult the installation proposes a set of 12 laboratories which cover many topics
guide that describes the steps to follow in Linux platform. (Ethernet, Token Ring, Switched LANs, Network Design,
OPNET IT Guru users can easily design their networks by ATM, RIP, OSPF, TCP, Queuing Discipline, RSVP, Firewalls
getting the required objects from the library and drag-and-drop and VPN, Applications) and represent an excellent
them in the topology. OPNET IT Guru allows users to simply introduction to OPNET IT Guru. We recommend new users to
modify variables and network conditions during the invest some time to do these laboratories, after which they
simulations and immediately see the impact of the changes. For should be able to take advantage of the simulator.
examples, we could change factors such as link state (up, down,
bandwidth, delay), routing protocols timers (RIP, OSPF, IS-IS, Supported protocols: Some of the protocols supported by
etc), and observe the expected results in the routing tables, or in OPNET IT Guru are:
the topological database (OSPF). • Applications and Systems: Applications, Mainframe 13 ,
RPG, Server13.
Object library: OPNET IT Guru comes with a wide variety of
• Data Link Layer: ATM, DOCSIS13, Ethernet, FDDI,
predefined commercial devices such as: 3Com, Alcatel/Lucent,
Frame Relay, ISDN/xDSL, LANE, LAPB, Link
Ascend, Bay Networks, Brocade, Cabletron, Cisco, Fore
Aggregation, SRP, Spanning Tree Bridge, Token Ring,
Systems, Foundry Networks, Hewlett Packard, Juniper, Mc
VLAN, X.25.
Data, NEC, Newbridge, Nortel, and many more. Also, OPNET
• Network Layer: APS, H.323, HAIPE, IP, IP Multicast, IP
IT Guru has many kinds of links: Ethernet, Fast Ethernet,
QoS, IPv613, RSVP.
Gigabit Ethernet, 10 Gigabit Ethernet, ADSL, ATM, FC
• Routing: BGP, EIGRP, IGRP, IS-IS, MPLS13, OSPF,
(Fibber Channel), FDDI, Frame Relay, PPP, PSTN Trunck,
PNNI13, RIP, Static Distributed Routing.
X.25, Token Ring, Circuit Switched and custom models. It
• Transport Layer: TCP, TPAL, wireless, MANET,
seems that it is the biggest library of network objects available
SMART MAC, TDMA, UMTS13, WiMAX (802.16e),
for simulation.
Wireless LAN, ZigBee™.
Intended area of use: OPNET IT Guru is more suitable for
Traffic profile: OPNET IT Guru comes with eight common
network planning and evaluation. For network research and
applications already defined: database access, E-mail, file
development, OPNET Modeler is an excellent alternative.
transfer, file print, telnet session, video conferencing, VoIP
Type of license: OPNET IT Guru is a commercial product and call, and web browsing. Also, users have the possibility to
prices vary depending on the extra modules required for the specify traffic flow manually, using a predefined profile or
simulation. OPNET Technologies offers a special University importing data from an external file. OPNET IT Guru supports
Program to buy OPNET IT Guru at low cost to universities, for the followings random variables: Bernoulli, Binomial, Chi
academic research and teaching. Also, there is a limited edition Square, Constant, Erlang, Exponential, Extreme, Fast Normal,
of OPNET IT Guru (called IT Guru Academic Edition) that can Gamma, Geometric, Laplace, Logistic, Log Normal, Pareto,
be downloaded by students and professors. This version is free Poisson, Power Function, Rayleigh, Triangular, Uniform, and
of charge and can be used in introductory and intermediate Weibull.
networking courses. Table I presents the main characteristics of the reviewed
network simulation tools. All the three network simulators can
Level of reporting: OPNET IT Guru supports a wide variety of be used in Windows and Linux. There are many research
advanced reporting features, including the capability to papers that used these tools; however we did a search in the
generate and compare results through graphs, tables, and ACM digital library and the IEEE Xplore and it seems that a
animations. Users can customize their graphs, where they can superior number of publications are done with ns-2, followed
observe how statistic (such as utilization, response time, or by OPNET IT Guru, and QualNet Developer. OPNET
throughput) changes during a simulation. OPNET IT Guru Technologies organizes a research conference called
reports network information or analysis results in tables, and OPNETWORK. Scalable Network Technologies also has a
we were impressed to see how accurate are the routing tables, or specialized research conference called QualNet World. So
the OSPF link-state database. Animations are useful for researchers have the option to present their research work in
observing the flow of packets within a network. these conferences.

13
Requires additional license
 Table I. Comparative analysis
ns-2 QualNet Developer OPNET IT Guru
DARPA, Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory, Xerox PARC, University of
Vendor /
California at Berkeley, University of Southern Scalable Network Technologies. OPNET Technologies.
Developer
California, NSF, Sun Microsystems, Carnegie
Mellon University, etc.
Very limited GUI. Easy installation process for Easy installation process and intuitive user Easy installation process and intuitive user
Usability
intermediate Linux / C++ users. interface. interface.
3Com, Alcatel/Lucent, Ascend, Bay Networks,
Brocade, Cabletron, Cisco, Fore Systems,
Foundry Networks, Hewlett Packard, Juniper,
Only basic devices like hubs, switches, routers Mc Data, NEC, Newbridge, Nortel. Links like
Basic nodes and links. Does not have support for
Object library or standard workstations, and some Cisco and Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, 10
commercial network devices.
Juniper routers. Gigabit Ethernet, ADSL, ATM, FC (Fibber
Channel), FDDI, Frame Relay, PPP, PSTN
Trunck, X.25, Token Ring, Circuit Switched
and custom models.
Intended area of Network planning, evaluation and protocol Network planning and evaluation. For network
Network protocol research.
use research. protocol research OPNET offers Modeler.
Commercial, reduced prices for research and Commercial, reduced prices for research and
Type of license Free open source project.
teaching. teaching and a free academic edition.
Graphs, tables, animations, reports and the Graphs, tables, and animations. Also it has the
Level of Limited. Needs Unix tools or C program to get
option to export results. Also, detailed option to capture screen elements, print graphic,
reporting information from trace files.
information at packet level. print text edit pads, and export graphics.
Good set of documentation: release note, user
Full set of documentation: release note and user
guide, installation guide, model library
Documentation Many tutorials and papers. A limited amount of guide. Access to web trainings, user forums,
description, product tour, papers. Access to
and learning specialized books. Learning curve from months FAQ and contributed models. Good variety of
knowledge base and user forums. A limited
curve to years. books, papers, tutorials, web training, labs.
amount of tutorials but no specialized books.
Learning curve from days to weeks.
Learning curve from days to weeks.
Applications, Mainframe , RPG, Server, ATM,
Cellular, UMTS, GSM, 802.3, Satellite, TCP,
DOCSIS, Ethernet, FDDI, Frame Relay,
ARP, ATM, CBR, FTP, HTTP, ICMP,
ARP, HDLC, GAF, MPLS, LDP, 802.11b, ISDN/xDSL, LANE, LAPB, Link Aggregation,
ICMPv6, IGMP, IPSec, IPv4, IPv6, LL6,
802.15.4 (WPAN), satellite Aloha, IP, Mobile SRP, Spanning Tree Bridge, Token Ring,
MCBR, RIPng, RIP, RIPv2, TCP, UDP, VBR,
Supported IP, IPinIP, SRM, AODV, DSR, DSDV, TORA, VLAN, X.25, APS, H.323, HAIPE, IP, IP
Military Radios, BGPv4, DiffServ, EIGRP,
protocols IMEP, TCP (many variants), UDP, SCTP, Multicast, IP QoS, IPv6, RSVP, BGP, EIGRP,
IGRP, H.323, H.225, MPLS, OSPF, SIP, QoS,
XCP, TFRC, RAP, RTP, PGM, SRM, RLM, IGRP, IS-IS, MPLS, OSPF, PNNI, RIP, Static
VLAN, VoIP, 802.15.4 (ZigBee), 802.11,
PLM. Distributed Routing, TCP, TPAL, Wireless,
802.11a/b/g, Aloha, CSMA MAC, IERP,
MANET, SMART MAC, TDMA, UMTS,
IARP, Mobile IPv4, TDMA, WiMAX.
WiMAX (802.16e), Wireless LAN, ZigBee.
Database access, E-mail, file transfer, file print,
telnet session, video conferencing, VoIP call,
web browsing, customs traffic profiles, and
FTP, telnet, CBR, MCBR, VBR, Abstract
many random variables (Bernoulli, Binomial,
CBR, ping, vat, telnet, FTP, multicast FTP, cellular application, GSM, HTTP, VoIP,
Chi Square, Constant, Erlang, Exponential,
Traffic profile HTTP, trace-driven traffic generators, and some customs traffic profiles, and some random
Extreme, Fast Normal, Gamma, Geometric,
random variables (Exponential, Pareto). variables (Uniform, Exponential, Gaussian,
Laplace, Logistic, Log Normal, Pareto, Poisson,
Pareto and Deterministic).
Power Function, Rayleigh, Triangular,
Uniform, Weibull and customs probability
density functions).

4 Conclusions and Future Work Institute of Technology, and the ICSI Center for Internet
Research, with collaborative support from INRIA (a French
In this paper, we presented the results of a comparative research institution located at Sophia-Antipolis). Currently
analysis of three famous network simulation tools: ns-2, ns-3 is in the development phase although preliminary versions
QualNet Developer and OPNET IT Guru. The evaluation was are available. The goal of ns-3 is to develop a discrete event
based on criteria proposed in [2][9][17]. network simulator where models are as closed as possible to the
ns-2 is mainly used by network researchers to study the real world. That is, an ns-3 model can be simulated or run in
implementation of new protocols or the modification of real time (emulator). In emulation mode, ns-3 can interact with
existing protocols for enhancements. It is not suitable to model the real world, by exchanging packets. ns-3 has many features
an enterprise network for analyzing the effect of changing that ease the interaction with the real world and include: (1)
some parameters on the network performance, or applying QoS addresses are real IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, (2) packets contain
policies. ns-3 [11] is a new project which aims to replace ns-2. the real network bytes, (3) software integration to reuse
Unlike its predecessor, ns-3 is only based on C++. For now, open-source software (e.g. the source code of an OSPF daemon
ns-3 is funded by the University of Washington, Georgia can be used and run in the simulator to create a routing protocol
model), (4) captures can be done within the simulator and load Analysis using a Network Testbed. In Proceedings of the
in a network analyzer for further studies. 3rd WEAS International Conference on Simulation,
According to our study, ns-2 has a poor GUI, lacks of vendor Modeling and Optimization (ICOSMO 2003). October,
network device models, and generates results (ns trace) that 2003.
need additional process to be useful. Therefore, network [9] R. Fujimoto, K. Perumalla, and G. Riley. Network
researchers need months to years to get familiar with ns-2, so it Simulation. Morgan & Claypool Publishers, 1st edition.
will be more suitable for long term network protocol December, 2006.
researching projects. In the other hand, QualNet Developer and [10] M. Greis. Tutorial for the Network Simulator ns.
OPNET IT Guru have an easy and intuitive GUI, and report http://www.isi.edu/nsnam/ns/tutorial/index.html.
results (graphs, tables, animations, etc) that are immediately [11] T. Henderson, S. Roy, S. Floyd, and G. Riley. ns-3 project
goals. In proceeding of the 2006 workshop on ns-2: the IP
exploitable, which make them excellent options for short or
network simulator. Pisa, Italia. October, 2006.
mid-term researching projects, or network planning, designing
[12] G. Huston. IPv4 Address Report.
and evaluation. However, OPNET IT Guru exceeds QualNet http://www.potaroo.net/tools/ipv4/index.html.
Developer in documentations, textbooks, manuals, and support [13] T. Issariyakul and E. Hossain. Introduction to Network
for vendor network device models. Additionally, with the MVI Simulator NS2. Springer. November, 2009.
(Multi-Vendor Import) module, OPNET IT Guru can import [14] R. Kaparti. OPNET IT Guru: A Tool for Networking
configurations directly from Cisco and Juniper devices, process Education. Regis University. September, 2005.
that can dramatically reduce the time spent in developing a [15] J. Lessmann, P. Janacik, L. Lachev, and D. Orfanus.
model. Comparative Study of Wireless Network Simulators. In
For future work, we are planning to further investigate the proceedings of the 7th International Conference on
support of IPv6 in network simulators, since the Internet Networking (ICN 2008). Cancun, Mexico. April, 2008.
community should face unallocated IPv4 address pool [16] D. Lugones. Control de Congestión Adaptativo en Redes
exhaustion in October 2011 [12]. This lack of IPv4 addresses is Infiniband. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. PhD
driving network designers to incorporate IPv6 in today’s Thesis. Barcelona, Spain. July, 2007.
networks. [17] J. Mohorko, F. Matjaž, and K. Saša. Advanced Modeling
and Simulation Methods for Communication Networks.
Acknowledgment Society for Microwave Theory and Technique and IEEE
MTT-S Chapter of Serbia. October, 2008.
We would like to thank OPNET Technologies for giving us a
[18] The Network Simulator ns-2: Documentation.
special discount on OPNET IT Guru within the University
http://www.isi.edu/nsnam/ns/ns-documentation.html.
Program, which allow us in realize this study.
[19] M. Obaidat and N. Boudriga. Fundamentals of
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