(In reply to comment #0)
> Created an attachment (id=294) [details] [details]
> patch
> 
> Uses NS_LOG_APPEND_CONTEXT to add node and netdevice index.  This may not apply
> to ns-3-dev directly, as I am working in another branch, but you get the idea. 
> Logs become something like this:
> 
> 0.000734987s [node 2 dev 0] MacLow:ReceiveOk(0x2d7b250, ns3::WifiMacHeader
> (CTL_ACK Duration/ID=0us, RA=d0:00:00:00:00:03) ns3::WifiMacTrailer (),
> 9.35955, wimax, 0)
> 0.000734987s [node 2 dev 0] MacLow:ReceiveOk(): d0:00:00:00:00:03
> duration/id=0ns
> 0.000734987s [node 2 dev 0] MacLow:ReceiveOk(): hdr.IsCts (): 0; hdr.GetAddr1
> (): d0:00:00:00:00:03; m_self: d0:00:00:00:00:03; m_ctsTimeoutEvent.IsRunning
> (): 0; m_currentPacket: 0
> 0.000734987s [node 2 dev 0] MacLow:ReceiveOk(): d0:00:00:00:00:03 rx drop
> CTL_ACK
> 

+1 from me.  We need to add similar to other devices, and to the internet
stack.

By the way, I've never succeeded in getting NS_LOG output to print the time out
in units of seconds rather than ns.  What setting or environment variable is
needed to enable that?

(In reply to comment #0)
> Created an attachment (id=294) [details] [details]
> patch
> 
> Uses NS_LOG_APPEND_CONTEXT to add node and netdevice index.  This may not apply
> to ns-3-dev directly, as I am working in another branch, but you get the idea. 
> Logs become something like this:
> 
> 0.000734987s [node 2 dev 0] MacLow:ReceiveOk(0x2d7b250, ns3::WifiMacHeader
> (CTL_ACK Duration/ID=0us, RA=d0:00:00:00:00:03) ns3::WifiMacTrailer (),
> 9.35955, wimax, 0)
> 0.000734987s [node 2 dev 0] MacLow:ReceiveOk(): d0:00:00:00:00:03
> duration/id=0ns
> 0.000734987s [node 2 dev 0] MacLow:ReceiveOk(): hdr.IsCts (): 0; hdr.GetAddr1
> (): d0:00:00:00:00:03; m_self: d0:00:00:00:00:03; m_ctsTimeoutEvent.IsRunning
> (): 0; m_currentPacket: 0
> 0.000734987s [node 2 dev 0] MacLow:ReceiveOk(): d0:00:00:00:00:03 rx drop
> CTL_ACK

The problem is that I spent an inordinate amount of time making sure that the
MacLow class does not depend on a pointer back to the NetDevice class. If you
want to add context to the log output in the MacLow layer, you should consider
printing the MAC address which is stored in the MacLow class.

In the higher MAC layers, they all have access to the MacLow class, so, you can
invoke GetAddress on it and print it in the context without needing the extra
back pointer to NetDevice.

Mathieu, the MAC address is pretty useless to me.  If you are debugging the
entire stack you need an identifier that is stable across all layers of the
stack, and the only such identifier is the node ID.  If you do not have a
pointer to the NetDevice, you also don't have a pointer to the Node.

I don't understand why you "spent an inordinate amount of time making sure that
the MacLow class does not depend on a pointer back to the NetDevice class". 
Why was it worth the effort?

Somehow I knew this was going to happen sooner or later.  And to think that I
had a simple patch to store the "current node ID" in the Simulator class, which
would avoid this whole mess... :-(

I agree with Gustavo about preferring nodeid/device id vs. mac address.  What
about creating something like:

class MacLogContextHelper
{
 // returns "[node <id> device <id>]" string corresponding to addr
 std::string GetNodeAndDeviceContext (const Mac48Address addr);

}

and cache the value in a MacLow string?

applied a patch which adds the mac address as context.
changeset 49a08376f196