Ns-3.3
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The Release
This page summarizes the ongoing release planning for the third stable release of ns-3.
ns-3.3 is scheduled for release in December 15, 2008.
The Release Manager
Craig Dowell (craigdo at ee.washington.edu) is the release manager for ns-3.3 and is the contact for any release issues.
The ns-3.3 Release Schedule
ns-3 releases are based on date-driven schedules as opposed to feature-driven schedules. We decide on a release date and then the release manager works backward to define windows during which time certain activites related to the release can happen. This has been done for ns-3.3 and the important milestones are:
- September 22 -- ns-3.2 posted;
- September 22 -- ns-3.3 Open phase begins;
- October 20 -- Recommended cutoff for new feature submission;
- October 27 -- Deadline for new feature submissions that require design review;
- November 3 -- Approved new feature ready-for-merge deadline;
- November 3 -- Late merge period begins;
- November 10 -- Late merge period ends;
- November 10 -- Open phase ends;
- November 10 -- Maintenance phase begins;
- December 1 -- Maintenance phase ends;
- December 1 -- Code freeze phase begins;
- December 1 -- ns-3.3-RC1;
- December 4 -- ns-3.3-RC2;
- December 8 -- ns-3.3-RC3;
- December 11 -- ns-3.3-RC4;
- December 15 -- ns-3.3 posted
- December 15 -- Code freeze phase ends;
- December 15 -- ns-3.4 Open phase begins.
As described in the Roadmap there are three broad sections in the release schedule. During the open phase, people wanting to include a new feature in ns-3.3 should contact craigdo and arrange to have their features merged into ns-3-dev. You will be expected to provide the following:
- A mercurial patch or bundle against the current version of ns-3-dev that contains your proposed feature addition. You need to make sure that I can apply this patch and build and run (debug and optimized as appropriate) all unit and regression tests sucessfully on all of our target machines;
- A summary of the additions you are proposing and an explanation of any changes to existing code that had to be done in order to support your feature (this will be used to genenerate release notes and will be provided to maintainers if a code review is indicated);
- Some kind of unit or regression test that I can use to determine if your feature is actually working at each stage of the integration.
I will take a quick look at your proposed addition and determine if a code review is required. According to the book of instructions a code review requiring positive acknowledgement by maintainers is indicated if:
- Your proposed feature does not work with all models or on all platforms;
- Your feature changes pre-existing APIs;
- Your feature crosses maintainer boundaries.
Just to be safe, I will probably run a feature submission by at least one maintainer according to the general area of applicability of the feature. For example, if you submit an entirely new device driver model, as a courtesy I will run this submission by the maintainers of the current devices. The maintainers won't have any responsibility to positively ack the submission, but I will take some time to allow a reasonable review.
I will coordinate new feature merges beginning at the start of the open phase (September 22, 2008). The absolute final deadline for feature inclusion in ns-3.3 is the start of the "Late merge period." This is the time during which I merge the code from all of those people who have waited until the last minute and work out any system integration issues that pop up. If you miss the start of the late merge period, or have a feature that is not design-reviewed by the start of the late merge period, well, sorry. You get to wait until the ns-3.4 open period to try again.
The end of the late merge period coincides with the beginning of the maintenance phase. No new features may be added, but the maintainers may check in fixes to bugs; and people with new features that have been accepted and merged may fix bugs in existing features. Please don't try to sneak in more new features or you may have your whole feature set removed at the release manager's discretion. You can ask me if you want to add small, self-contained features, but there are no guarantees that I will okay them.
On December 1st, we are going to enter the code freeze phase. This indicates that we are in the final stages of the release and our primary goal is stability. During the code freeze phase, only P1 bugfixes will be allowed to be checked in. I will begin my daily annoying emails listing all of the priority one bugs that are outstanding. Our goal will be to reduce the number of P1 bugs to zero before the release of ns-3.3.
I reserve the right to veto (and remove) any new feature addition if it begins to cause problems and looks like it threatens the stability of the release at any time in the release process.
Candidates for Merge into ns-3.3
As you can see in the Roadmap, we have identified several candidates for inclusion in ns-3.3. As time passes, I will add more status regarding the progress of these new features.
- build system refactoring
- IPv4/routing refactoring + Basic IPv6 Support
- Emulation Mode Support
- Random Number Generator and RandomVariable Changes
Status: Random Number Generator and RandomVariable Changes
October 20, 2008
Status unknown
Status: Build System Refactoring
October 13, 2008
Status unknown
Status: IPv4/routing refactoring + Basic IPv6 Support
October 13, 2008
Basic IPv6 Support feature "adopted." Discussions on API considerations proceeding.
Status: Emulation Mode Support
October 13, 2008
Emulation Mode support consists of bugfixes for the real-time simulator, a new feature to support external driving of the simulation event queue (RunOneEvent), addition of new real-time scheduling methods, and a new device (tap + emu).
The changes to the real-time simulator are being discussed on the list and will need to go in first (hopefully by Friday). A design review request for the new device will immediately follow.
Status: Basic IPv6 Support Status
October 13, 2008
Due to possible compatibility issues with the ongoing IPv4/routing refactoring work, the Basic IPv6 Support feature set has been "adopted" into the IPv4/routing refactoring feature, and the two feature sets will be evaluated and merged together.
October 8, 2008
I have received a package from Sebastien Vincent requesting that the first "chunk" of the IPv6 support be included in ns-3.3. Sebastien has provided a pointer to a repository that is in sync with ns-3-dev here.
The features of this first chunk of IPv6 provide the addresses, the routes, the IPv6 header and some changes in *NetDevice to allow specific ethernet multicast addresses to be forward up to layer 3.
Sebastien is asking to add the following files:
- src/node/ipv6-route.cc/h
- src/node/ipv6-address.cc/h
- src/node/inet6-socket-address.cc,h
- src/node/ipv6-header.cc,h
- src/node/icmp-socket.cc,h
- example/test-ipv6.cc
and has made the following changes to existing code or API:
- Add virtual method GetMulticast6 and MakeMulticast6Address in NetDevice and all of its subclasses (CsmaNetDevice, ...);
- In CsmaNetDevice, we declare some ethernet representation of well-known IPv6 multicast address, and forward up all packet (that match these addresses) to layer 3.
Craigdo 23:47, 20 October 2008 (EDT)