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On this page, we will try to maintain pointers to current ns-3 development work, and post some suggested project ideas.

If you are interested in collaborating on one of these projects, please do not hesitate to contact the individuals identified.

Note: Several ns-3 developers hang out on IRC at #ns-3 at irc.freenode.net.

Current Development Projects

ns-3 Python bindings

• summary: Python bindings for the ns-3 API, to enable Python scripting
• ns-developers post: http://mailman.isi.edu/pipermail/ns-developers/2008-January/003608.html
• code location: http://code.nsnam.org/gjc/pybindgen-notracing
• status: Priority for ns-3.2 release.
• Here are more details from Gustavo's blog
• Build Instructions

ns-3 Emulation and Realtime Scheduler

In this context emulation means the ability to arange for the simulator to generate and consume data from the network in real time. There are two main pieces to this effort: a realtime simulator scheduler and prototypical net devices that allow connection to real system hardware.

Emulation and Realtime Scheduler has details.

• summary: Add support for various forms of emulation
• ns-developers post: none yet
• code location: http://code.nsnam.org/craigdo/ns-3-emu
• status: Working on emulation code (libnet and pcap integration) and user-space threads

Synchronous posix/sockets API

• summary: Add support for various forms of emulation
• ns-developers post: http://mailman.isi.edu/pipermail/ns-developers/2008-April/003912.html
• code location: http://code.nsnam.org/mathieu/ns-3-simu
• status: candidate for ns-3.2 merge; being worked also with the application integration project below

Network Simulation Cradle Integration

Florian Westphal is working on this Google Summer of Code Project for 2008.

• summary: Allow use of real-world network stacks in simulations
• code location: http://hg.strlen.de/cgi-bin/hgwebdir.cgi/ns-3-nsc/
• wiki page: http://www.nsnam.org/wiki/index.php/Network_Simulation_Cradle_Integration
• status: Being developed as part of Google Summer of Code, 2008

Network Simulation Cradle Integration has details and will be updated as work progresses.

Visualization for ns-3

Jeremy Norman and the iNSpect team have posted some plans for a visualization library for ns-3: http://mailman.isi.edu/pipermail/ns-developers/2008-March/003777.html

IPv6 for ns-3

• summary: Ipv6 support for ns-3
• ns-developers post: http://mailman.isi.edu/pipermail/ns-developers/2008-June/004283.html
• code location: hg clone https://svnet.u-strasbg.fr/hg/ns-3-ipv6/
• status: Posted for review on 13-June

real-world application integration

• summary: port of quagga routing to ns-3
• wiki page: http://www.nsnam.org/wiki/index.php/Real_World_Application_Integration
• code location: http://code.nsnam.org/lj/quagga-porting/
• status: Being developed by Liu Jian, Google Summer of Code

parallel simulations

• summary: ns-3 extensions for parallelization
• wiki page: http://www.nsnam.org/wiki/index.php/Parallel_Simulations
• code location: http://code.nsnam.org/pfeifer/ns-3-para-mpi/
• status: Being developed by Hagen Paul Pfeifer, Google Summer of Code

Statistics for ns-3

• summary: statistical framework for ns-3
• wiki page: http://www.nsnam.org/wiki/index.php/Statistical_Framework_for_Network_Simulation
• code location: http://code.nsnam.org/tjkopena/ns-3-stat/
• status: Under development/requesting feedback

802.11 PHY cleanup

Mathieu Lacage (mathieu.lacage@sophia.inria.fr) is working on 802.11 PHY cleanup to simplify addition of other 802.11 PHY models.

• code location: http://code.nsnam.org/mathieu/ns-3-wifi

Suggested Projects

2008 Google Summer of Code Project Ideas

We have posted some project ideas for Google Summer of Code. Three of these have been picked up (see above) but others are candidates for future work.

Event Scheduler

• Implement a "Calendar Queue" event scheduler. The reference paper is: Randy Brown, Calendar Queues: A Fast 0(1) Priority Queue Implementation for the Simulation Event Set Problem, CACM, 31(10):1220-1227, October 1988.

• Implement a "Dynamic Calendar Queue" event scheduler. The reference paper is: JongSuk Ahn, SeungHyun Oh, "Dynamic Calendar Queue," ss, p. 20, Thirty-Second Annual Simulation Symposium, 1999.

Ns3 Wireless PHY

This project aims at building a high-quality set of PHY-level models for wireless networks: Ns3WirelessPhy

Traffic generation applications

George Riley (riley@ece.gatech.edu) is overseeing the porting of application models from GTNetS to ns-3.

Wireless routing protocol infrastructure

Wireless routing protocol infrastructure for mobile wireless networks. Contact: Mathieu Lacage (mathieu.lacage@sophia.inria.fr)

Removing traffic generation from applications class

1. • summary: Proposed decoupling to generalize applications
   • ns-developers post: http://mailman.isi.edu/pipermail/ns-developers/2007-July/003136.html
   • code location: http://code.nsnam.org/laprisee/ns-3-mp/
   • status: Was under discussion in the summer.