Bapuji Educational Association (Regd.

)
Bapuji Institute of Engineering and Technology

Department of Computer Science & Engineering

LAB MANUAL
(2020–2021)

18CSL57 COMPUTER NETWORK LABORATORY

Basics of NS2

V Semester CSE
 Department of Computer Science & Engineering

TABLE OF CONTENTS
BASICS OF NS2

1. Introduction to NS2 1
2. XGraph 9
3. Awk and advanced 10

COMPUTER NETWORK LABORATORY

(Effective from the academic year 2018 -2019)
SEMESTER – V
Course Code 18CSL57 CIE Marks 40
Number of Contact Hours/Week 0:2:2 SEE Marks 60
Total Number of Lab Contact Hours 36 Exam Hours 03
Credits – 2
Course Learning Objectives: This course (18CSL57) will enable students to:
 Demonstrate operation of network and its management commands
 Simulate and demonstrate the performance of GSM and CDMA
 Implement data link layer and transport layer protocols.
Descriptions (if any):
 For the experiments below modify the topology and parameters set for the experiment and take multiple
rounds of reading and analyze the results available in log files. Plot necessary graphs and conclude. Use
NS2/NS3.
 Installation procedure of the required software must be demonstrated, carried out in groups and
documented in the journal.
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PART-A
Introduction to NS-2:
 Widely known as NS2, is simply an event driven simulation tool.
 Useful in studying the dynamic nature of communication networks.
 Simulation of wired as well as wireless network functions and protocols (e.g., routing
algorithms, TCP, UDP) can be done using NS2.
 In general, NS2 provides users with a way of specifying such network protocols and
simulating their corresponding behaviors.

Basic Architecture of NS2

Tcl scripting
• Tcl is a general purpose scripting language. [Interpreter]
• Tcl runs on most of the platforms such as Unix, Windows, and Mac.
• The strength of Tcl is its simplicity.
• It is not necessary to declare a data type for variable prior to the usage.

Basics of TCL
Syntax: command arg1 arg2 arg3
 Hello World!
puts stdout{Hello, World!}
Hello, World!
 Variables Command Substitution
set a 5 set len [string length foobar]
set b $a set len [expr [string length foobar] + 9]

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 Simple Arithmetic
expr 7.2 / 4
 Procedures
proc Diag {a b} {
set c [expr sqrt($a * $a + $b * $b)]
return $c }
puts ―Diagonal of a 3, 4 right triangle is [Diag 3 4]‖
Output: Diagonal of a 3, 4 right triangle is 5.0
 Loops
while{$i < $n} { for {set i 0} {$i < $n} {incr i} {
... ...
} }
Wired TCL Script Components
Create the event scheduler
Open new files & turn on the tracing
Create the nodes
Setup the links
Configure the traffic type (e.g., TCP, UDP, etc)
Set the time of traffic generation (e.g., CBR, FTP)
Terminate the simulation
NS Simulator Preliminaries.
1. Initialization and termination aspects of the ns simulator.
2. Definition of network nodes, links, queues and topology.
3. Definition of agents and of applications.
4. The nam visualization tool.
5. Tracing and random variables.

Initialization and Termination of TCL Script in NS-2

An ns simulation starts with the command

set ns [new Simulator]

Which is thus the first line in the tcl script? This line declares a new variable as using the set
command, you can call this variable as you wish, In general people declares it as ns because

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it is an instance of the Simulator class, so an object the code[new Simulator] is indeed the
installation of the class Simulator using the reserved word new.
In order to have output files with data on the simulation (trace files) or files used for
visualization (nam files), we need to create the files using ―open‖ command:
#Open the Trace file
set tracefile1 [open out.tr w]

$ns trace-all $tracefile1

#Open the NAM trace file

set namfile [open out.nam w]

$ns namtrace-all $namfile

The above creates a trace file called ―out.tr‖ and a nam visualization trace file called
―out.nam‖. Within the tcl script, these files are not called explicitly by their names, but
instead by pointers that are declared above and called ―tracefile1‖ and ―namfile‖ respectively.
Remark that they begins with a # symbol. The second line open the file ―out.tr‖ to be used for
writing, declared with the letter ―w‖. The third line uses a simulator method called trace-all
that have as parameter the name of the file where the traces will go.
The last line tells the simulator to record all simulation traces in NAM input format. It
also gives the file name that the trace will be written to later by the command $ns flush-trace.
In our case, this will be the file pointed at by the pointer ―$namfile‖, i.e the file ―out.tr‖.
The termination of the program is done using a ―finish‖ procedure.
#Define a „finish‟ procedure
Proc finish { } {

global ns tracefile1 namfile

$ns flush-trace

Close $tracefile1

Close $namfile

Exec nam out.nam &

Exit 0

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The word proc declares a procedure in this case called finish and without arguments.
The word global is used to tell that we are using variables declared outside the procedure.
The simulator method ―flush-trace” will dump the traces on the respective files. The tcl
command ―close” closes the trace files defined before and exec executes the nam program for
visualization. The command exit will ends the application and return the number 0 as status
to the system. Zero is the default for a clean exit. Other values can be used to say that is a exit
because something fails.
At the end of ns program we should call the procedure ―finish‖ and specify at what
time the termination should occur. For example,
$ns at 125.0 “finish”
will be used to call ―finish‖ at time 125sec.Indeed,the at method of the simulator allows us to
schedule events explicitly.
The simulation can then begin using the command

$ns run

Definition of a network of links and nodes

The way to define a node is

set n0 [$ns node]

The node is created which is printed by the variable n0. When we shall refer to that node in
the script we shall thus write $n0.
Once we define several nodes, we can define the links that connect them. An example
of a definition of a link is:
$ns duplex-link $n0 $n2 10Mb 10ms DropTail

Which means that $n0 and $n2 are connected using a bi-directional link that has 10ms
of propagation delay and a capacity of 10Mb per sec for each direction.
To define a directional link instead of a bi-directional one, we should replace ―duplex-
link‖ by ―simplex-link‖.
In NS, an output queue of a node is implemented as a part of each link whose input is
that node. The definition of the link then includes the way to handle overflow at that queue.
In our case, if the buffer capacity of the output queue is exceeded then the last packet to
arrive is dropped. Many alternative options exist, such as the RED (Random Early Discard)

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mechanism, the FQ (Fair Queuing), the DRR (Deficit Round Robin), the stochastic Fair
Queuing (SFQ) and the CBQ (which including a priority and a round-robin scheduler).
In ns, an output queue of a node is implemented as a part of each link whose input is
that node. We should also define the buffer capacity of the queue related to each link. An
example would be:
#set Queue Size of link (n0-n2) to 20

$ns queue-limit $n0 $n2 20

Agents and Applications

We need to define routing (sources, destinations) the agents (protocols) the
application that use them.

FTP over TCP

TCP is a dynamic reliable congestion control protocol. It uses Acknowledgements
created by the destination to know whether packets are well received.
There are number variants of the TCP protocol, such as Tahoe, Reno, NewReno,
Vegas. The type of agent appears in the first line:

set tcp [new Agent/TCP]

The command $ns attach-agent $n0 $tcp defines the source node of the tcp connection.
The command
set sink [new Agent /TCPSink]
Defines the behavior of the destination node of TCP and assigns to it a pointer called sink.

#Setup a UDP connection

set udp [new Agent/UDP]
$ns attach-agent $n1 $udp
set null [new Agent/Null]

$ns attach-agent $n5 $null

$ns connect $udp $null

$udp set fid_2

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#setup a CBR over UDP connection

set cbr [new Application/Traffic/CBR]

$cbr attach-agent $udp

$cbr set packetsize_ 100

$cbr set rate_ 0.01Mb

$cbr set random_ false

Above shows the definition of a CBR application using a UDP agent

The command $ns attach-agent $n4 $sink defines the destination node. The
command $ns connect $tcp $sink finally makes the TCP connection between the source and
destination nodes.
TCP has many parameters with initial fixed defaults values that can be changed if
mentioned explicitly. For example, the default TCP packet size has a size of 1000bytes.This
can be changed to another value, say 552bytes, using the command $tcp set packetSize_
552.
When we have several flows, we may wish to distinguish them so that we can identify
them with different colors in the visualization part. This is done by the command $tcp set
fid_ 1 that assigns to the TCP connection a flow identification of ―1‖.We shall later give the
flow identification of ―2‖ to the UDP connection.

CBR over UDP

A UDP source and destination is defined in a similar way as in the case of TCP.
Instead of defining the rate in the command $cbr set rate_ 0.01Mb, one can define the
time interval between transmission of packets using the command.

$cbr set interval_ 0.005

The packet size can be set to some value using

$cbr set packetSize_ <packet size>

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Scheduling Events
NS is a discrete event based simulation. The tcp script defines when event should
occur. The initializing command set ns [new Simulator] creates an event scheduler, and
events are then scheduled using the format:
$ns at <time> <event>
The scheduler is started when running ns that is through the command $ns run.
The beginning and end of the FTP and CBR application can be done through the following
command
$ns at 0.1 “$cbr start”

$ns at 1.0 “ $ftp start”

$ns at 124.0 “$ftp stop”

$ns at 124.5 “$cbr stop”

Structure of Trace Files

When tracing into an output ASCII file, the trace is organized in 12 fields as follows
in fig shown below, The meaning of the fields are:
Event Time From To PKT PKT Flags Fid Src Dest Seq Pkt
Node Node Type Size Addr Addr Num id

1. The first field is the event type. It is given by one of four possible symbols r, +, -, d which
correspond respectively to receive (at the output of the link), enqueued, dequeued and
dropped.
2. The second field gives the time at which the event occurs.
3. Gives the input node of the link at which the event occurs.
4. Gives the output node of the link at which the event occurs.
5. Gives the packet type (eg CBR or TCP)
6. Gives the packet size
7. Some flags
8. This is the flow id (fid) of IPv6 that a user can set for each flow at the input OTcl script
one can further use this field for analysis purposes; it is also used when specifying stream
color for the NAM display.

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9. This is the source address given in the form of ―node.port‖.

10. This is the destination address, given in the same form.
11. This is the network layer protocol’s packet sequence number. Even though UDP
implementations in a real network do not use sequence number, ns keeps track of UDP
packet sequence number for analysis purposes
12. The last field shows the Unique id of the packet.

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XGRAPH

The xgraph program draws a graph on an x-display given data read from either data
file or from standard input if no files are specified. It can display upto 64 independent data
sets using different colors and line styles for each set. It annotates the graph with a title, axis
labels, grid lines or tick marks, grid labels and a legend.

Syntax:
Xgraph [options] file-name

Options are listed here

/-bd <color> (Border)
This specifies the border color of the xgraph window.
/-bg <color> (Background)
This specifies the background color of the xgraph window.
/-fg<color> (Foreground)
This specifies the foreground color of the xgraph window.
/-lf <fontname> (LabelFont)
All axis labels and grid labels are drawn using this font.
/-t<string> (Title Text)
This string is centered at the top of the graph.
/-x <unit name> (XunitText)
This is the unit name for the x-axis. Its default is ―X‖.
/-y <unit name> (YunitText)
This is the unit name for the y-axis. Its default is ―Y‖.

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Awk- An Advanced

Awk is a programmable, pattern-matching, and processing tool available in UNIX. It

works equally well with text and numbers.
Awk is not just a command, but a programming language too. In other words, awk
utility is a pattern scanning and processing language. It searches one or more files to see if
they contain lines that match specified patterns and then perform associated actions, such as
writing the line to the standard output or incrementing a counter each time it finds a match.
Syntax:
awk option ‘selection_criteria {action}’ file(s)

Here, selection_criteria filters input and select lines for the action component to act
upon. The selection_criteria is enclosed within single quotes and the action within the curly
braces. Both the selection_criteria and action forms an awk program.
Example: $ awk „/manager/ {print}‟ emp.lst

Variables
Awk allows the user to use variables of there choice. You can now print a serial
number, using the variable kount, and apply it those directors drawing a salary exceeding
6700:
$ awk –F”|” „$3 == “director” && $6 > 6700 {
kount =kount+1
printf “ %3f %20s %-12s %d\n”, kount,$2,$3,$6 }‟ empn.lst

THE –f OPTION: STORING awk PROGRAMS IN A FILE

You should holds large awk programs in separate file and provide them with the awk
extension for easier identification. Let’s first store the previous program in the file
empawk.awk:
$ cat empawk.awk
Observe that this time we haven’t used quotes to enclose the awk program. You can
now use awk with the –f filename option to obtain the same output:

Awk –F”|” –f empawk.awk empn.lst

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THE BEGIN AND END SECTIONS

Awk statements are usually applied to all lines selected by the address, and if there are
no addresses, then they are applied to every line of input. But, if you have to print something
before processing the first line, for example, a heading, then the BEGIN section can be used
gainfully. Similarly, the end section useful in printing some totals after processing is over.
The BEGIN and END sections are optional and take the form
BEGIN {action}
END {action}
These two sections, when present, are delimited by the body of the awk program. You
can use them to print a suitable heading at the beginning and the average salary at the end.
BUILT-IN VARIABLES
Awk has several built-in variables. They are all assigned automatically, though it is
also possible for a user to reassign some of them. You have already used NR, which signifies
the record number of the current line. We’ll now have a brief look at some of the other
variable.
The FS Variable: as stated elsewhere, awk uses a contiguous string of spaces as the default
field delimiter. FS redefines this field separator, which in the sample database happens to be
the |. When used at all, it must occur in the BEGIN section so that the body of the program
knows its value before it starts processing:
BEGIN {FS=”|”}
This is an alternative to the –F option which does the same thing.
The OFS Variable: when you used the print statement with comma-separated arguments,
each argument was separated from the other by a space. This is awk’s default output field
separator, and can reassigned using the variable OFS in the BEGIN section:
BEGIN { OFS=”~” }
When you reassign this variable with a ~ (tilde), awk will use this character for delimiting the
print arguments. This is a useful variable for creating lines with delimited fields.
The NF variable: NF comes in quite handy for cleaning up a database of lines that don’t
contain the right number of fields. By using it on a file, say emp.lst, you can locate those lines
not having 6 fields, and which have crept in due to faulty data entry:
$awk „BEGIN {FS = “|”}
NF! =6 {
Print “Record No “, NR, “has”, “fields”}‟ empx.lst

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