@c ========================================================================
@c Begin document body here
@c ========================================================================
@c ========================================================================
@c PART: Getting Started
@c ========================================================================
@c The below chapters are under the major heading "Getting Started"
@c This is similar to the Latex \part command
@c
@c ========================================================================
@c Getting Started
@c ========================================================================
@node Getting Started
@chapter Getting Started
@menu
* Downloading ns-3::
* Building ns-3::
* Testing ns-3::
* Running a Script::
@end menu
@c ========================================================================
@c Downloading ns-3
@c ========================================================================
@node Downloading ns-3
@section Downloading ns-3
@cindex Prerequisites
@cindex Dependencies
The @command{ns-3} system as a whole is a fairly complex system and has a
number of dependencies on other components. Along with the systems you will
most likely deal with every day (the GNU toolchain, Mercurial, you programmer
editor) you will need to ensure that a number of additional libraries are
present on your system before proceeding. @command{ns-3} provides a wiki
for your reading pleasure that includes pages with many useful hints and tips.
One such page is the ``Installation'' page,
@uref{http://www.nsnam.org/wiki/index.php/Installation}.
The ``Prerequisites'' section of this wiki page explains which packages are
required to support common @command{ns-3} options, and also provides the
commands used to install them for common Linux variants. Cygwin users will
have to use the Cygwin installer (if you are a Cygwin user, you used it to
install Cygwin).
You may want to take this opportunity to explore the @command{ns-3} wiki
a bit since there really is a wealth of information there.
@cindex Linux
@cindex Cygwin
@cindex GNU
@cindex toolchain
@cindex Mercurial
@cindex Waf
From this point forward, we are going to assume that the reader is working in
Linux or a Linux emulation environment (Linux, Cygwin, etc.) and has the GNU
toolchain installed and verified along with the prerequisites mentioned
above. We are also going to assume that you have Mercurial and Waf installed
and running on the target system as described in the ``Getting Started'' section
of the @command{ns-3} web site:
@uref{http://www.nsnam.org/getting_started.html}.
@cindex tarball
The @command{ns-3} code is available in Mercurial repositories on the server
@uref{http://code.nsnam.org}. You can also download a tarball release at
@uref{http://www.nsnam.org/releases/}, or you can work with repositories
using Mercurial. We recommend using Mercurial unless there's a good reason
not to. See the end of this section for instructions on how to get a tarball
release.
@cindex repository
The simplest way to get started using Mercurial repositories is to use the
@code{ns-3-allinone} environment. This is a set of scripts that manages the
downloading and building of various subsystems of @command{ns-3} for you. We
recommend that you begin your @command{ns-3} adventures in this environment
as it can really simplify your life at this point.
@subsection Downloading ns-3 Using Mercurial
One practice is to create a directory called @code{repos} in one's home
directory under which one can keep local Mercurial repositories.
@emph{Hint: we will assume you do this later in the tutorial.} If you adopt
that approach, you can get a copy of @code{ns-3-allinone} by typing the
following into your Linux shell (assuming you have installed Mercurial):
@verbatim
cd
mkdir repos
cd repos
hg clone http://code.nsnam.org/ns-3-allinone
@end verbatim
As the hg (Mercurial) command executes, you should see something like the
following displayed,
@verbatim
destination directory: ns-3-allinone
requesting all changes
adding changesets
adding manifests
adding file changes
added 31 changesets with 45 changes to 7 files
7 files updated, 0 files merged, 0 files removed, 0 files unresolved
@end verbatim
After the clone command completes, you should have a directory called
@code{ns-3-allinone} under your @code{~/repos} directory, the contents of which should
look something like the following:
@verbatim
build.py* constants.py dist.py* download.py* README util.py
@end verbatim
Notice that you really just downloaded some Python scripts. The next step
will be to use those scripts to download and build the @command{ns-3}
distribution of your choice.
@cindex repository
If you go to the following link: @uref{http://code.nsnam.org/},
you will see a number of repositories. Many are the private repositories of
the @command{ns-3} development team. The repositories of interest to you will
be prefixed with ``ns-3''. Official releases of @command{ns-3} will be
numbered as @code{ns-3.<release>.<hotfix>}. For example, a second hotfix to a
still hypothetical release nine of @command{ns-3} would be numbered as
@code{ns-3.9.2}.
The current development snapshot (unreleased) of @command{ns-3} may be found
at @uref{http://code.nsnam.org/ns-3-dev/}. The
developers attempt to keep these repository in consistent, working states but
they are in a development area with unreleased code present, so you may want
to consider staying with an official release if you do not need newly-
introduced features.
Since the release numbers are going to be changing, I will stick with
the more constant ns-3-dev here in the tutorial, but you can replace the
string ``ns-3-dev'' with your choice of release (e.g., ns-3.6) in the
text below. You can find the latest version of the
code either by inspection of the repository list or by going to the
@uref{http://www.nsnam.org/getting_started.html,,``Getting Started''}
web page and looking for the latest release identifier.
Go ahead and change into the @code{ns-3-allinone} directory you created when
you cloned that repository. We are now going to use the @code{download.py}
script to pull down the various pieces of @command{ns-3} you will be using.
Go ahead and type the following into your shell (remember you can substitute
the name of your chosen release number instead of @code{ns-3-dev} -- like
@code{"ns-3.6"} if you want to work with a
stable release).
@verbatim
./download.py -n ns-3-dev
@end verbatim
Note that the default for the @code{-n} option is @code{ns-3-dev} and so the
above is actually redundant. We provide this example to illustrate how to
specify alternate repositories. In order to download @code{ns-3-dev} you
can actually use the defaults and simply type,
@verbatim
./download.py
@end verbatim
As the hg (Mercurial) command executes, you should see something like the
following,
@verbatim
#
# Get NS-3
#
Cloning ns-3 branch
=> hg clone http://code.nsnam.org/ns-3-dev ns-3-dev
requesting all changes
adding changesets
adding manifests
adding file changes
added 4634 changesets with 16500 changes to 1762 files
870 files updated, 0 files merged, 0 files removed, 0 files unresolved
@end verbatim
This is output by the download script as it fetches the actual @code{ns-3}
code from the repository.
The download script is smart enough to know that on some platforms various
pieces of ns-3 are not supported. On your platform you may not see some
of these pieces come down. However, on most platforms, the process should
continue with something like,
@verbatim
#
# Get PyBindGen
#
Required pybindgen version: 0.10.0.640
Trying to fetch pybindgen; this will fail if no network connection is available. Hit Ctrl-C to skip.
=> bzr checkout -rrevno:640 https://launchpad.net/pybindgen pybindgen
Fetch was successful.
@end verbatim
This was the download script getting the Python bindings generator for you.
Note that you will need bazaar (bzr), a version control system, to download
PyBindGen. Next you should see (modulo platform variations) something along
the lines of,
@verbatim
#
# Get NSC
#
Required NSC version: nsc-0.5.0
Retrieving nsc from https://secure.wand.net.nz/mercurial/nsc
=> hg clone https://secure.wand.net.nz/mercurial/nsc nsc
requesting all changes
adding changesets
adding manifests
adding file changes
added 273 changesets with 17565 changes to 15175 files
10622 files updated, 0 files merged, 0 files removed, 0 files unresolved
@end verbatim
This part of the process is the script downloading the Network Simulation
Cradle for you. Note that NSC is not supported on OSX or Cygwin and works
best with gcc-3.4 or gcc-4.2 or greater series.
After the download.py script completes, you should have several new directories
under @code{~/repos/ns-3-allinone}:
@verbatim
build.py* constants.pyc download.py* nsc/ README util.pyc
constants.py dist.py* ns-3-dev/ pybindgen/ util.py
@end verbatim
Go ahead and change into @code{ns-3-dev} under your @code{~/repos/ns-3-allinone}
directory. You should see something like the following there:
@verbatim
AUTHORS examples/ RELEASE_NOTES utils/ wscript
bindings/ LICENSE samples/ VERSION wutils.py
CHANGES.html ns3/ scratch/ waf*
doc/ README src/ waf.bat*
@end verbatim
You are now ready to build the @command{ns-3} distribution.
@subsection Downloading ns-3 Using a Tarball
The process for downloading @command{ns-3} via tarball is simpler than the
Mercurial process since all of the pieces are pre-packaged for you. You just
have to pick a release, download it and decompress it.
As mentioned above, one practice is to create a directory called @code{repos}
in one's home directory under which one can keep local Mercurial repositories.
One could also keep a @code{tarballs} directory. @emph{Hint: the tutorial
will assume you downloaded into a @code{repos} directory, so remember the
placekeeper.} If you adopt the @code{tarballs} directory approach, you can
get a copy of a release by typing the following into your Linux shell
(substitute the appropriate version numbers, of course):
@verbatim
cd
mkdir tarballs
cd tarballs
wget http://www.nsnam.org/releases/ns-allinone-3.6.tar.bz2
tar xjf ns-allinone-3.6.tar.bz2
@end verbatim
If you change into the directory @code{ns-allinone-3.6} you should see a
number of files:
@verbatim
build.py* ns-3.6/ pybindgen-0.12.0.700/ util.py
constants.py nsc-0.5.1/ README
@end verbatim
You are now ready to build the @command{ns-3} distribution.
@c ========================================================================
@c Building ns-3
@c ========================================================================
@node Building ns-3
@section Building ns-3
@subsection Building with build.py
@cindex building with build.py
The first time you build the @command{ns-3} project you should build using the
@command{allinone} environment. This will get the project configured for you
in the most commonly useful way.
Change into the directory you created in the download section above. If you
downloaded using Mercurial you should have a directory called
@code{ns-3-allinone} under your @code{~/repos} directory. If you downloaded
using a tarball you should have a directory called something like
@code{ns-allinone-3.6} under your @code{~/tarballs} directory. Take a deep
breath and type the following:
@verbatim
./build.py
@end verbatim
You will see lots of typical compiler output messages displayed as the build
script builds the various pieces you downloaded. Eventually you should see the
following magic words:
@verbatim
Waf: Leaving directory `/home/craigdo/repos/ns-3-allinone/ns-3-dev/build'
'build' finished successfully (2m30.586s)
@end verbatim
Once the project has built you can say goodbye to your old friends, the
@code{ns-3-allinone} scripts. You got what you needed from them and will now
interact directly with Waf and we do it in the @code{ns-3-dev} directory,
not in the @code{ns-3-allinone} directory. Go ahead and change into the
@code{ns-3-dev} directory (or the directory for the appropriate release you
downloaded.
@verbatim
cd ns-3-dev
@end verbatim
@subsection Building with Waf
@cindex building with Waf
@cindex configuring Waf
@cindex building debug version with Waf
@cindex compiling with Waf
@cindex unit tests with Waf
We use Waf to configure and build the @command{ns-3} project. It's not
strictly required at this point, but it will be valuable to take a slight
detour and look at how to make changes to the configuration of the project.
Probably the most useful configuration change you can make will be to
build the optimized version of the code. By default you have configured
your project to build the debug version. Let's tell the project to do
make an optimized build. To explain to Waf that it should do optimized
builds you will need to execute the following command,
@verbatim
./waf -d optimized configure
@end verbatim
This runs Waf out of the local directory (which is provided as a convenience
for you). As the build system checks for various dependencies you should see
output that looks similar to the following,
@verbatim
Checking for program g++ : ok /usr/bin/g++
Checking for program cpp : ok /usr/bin/cpp
Checking for program ar : ok /usr/bin/ar
Checking for program ranlib : ok /usr/bin/ranlib
Checking for g++ : ok
Checking for program pkg-config : ok /usr/bin/pkg-config
Checking for -Wno-error=deprecated-declarations support : yes
Checking for -Wl,--soname=foo support : yes
Checking for header stdlib.h : ok
Checking for header signal.h : ok
Checking for header pthread.h : ok
Checking for high precision time implementation : 128-bit integer
Checking for header stdint.h : ok
Checking for header inttypes.h : ok
Checking for header sys/inttypes.h : not found
Checking for library rt : ok
Checking for header netpacket/packet.h : ok
Checking for pkg-config flags for GSL : ok
Checking for header linux/if_tun.h : ok
Checking for pkg-config flags for GTK_CONFIG_STORE : ok
Checking for pkg-config flags for LIBXML2 : ok
Checking for library sqlite3 : ok
Checking for NSC location : ok ../nsc (guessed)
Checking for library dl : ok
Checking for NSC supported architecture x86_64 : ok
Checking for program python : ok /usr/bin/python
Checking for Python version >= 2.3 : ok 2.5.2
Checking for library python2.5 : ok
Checking for program python2.5-config : ok /usr/bin/python2.5-config
Checking for header Python.h : ok
Checking for -fvisibility=hidden support : yes
Checking for pybindgen location : ok ../pybindgen (guessed)
Checking for Python module pybindgen : ok
Checking for pybindgen version : ok 0.10.0.640
Checking for Python module pygccxml : ok
Checking for pygccxml version : ok 0.9.5
Checking for program gccxml : ok /usr/local/bin/gccxml
Checking for gccxml version : ok 0.9.0
Checking for program sudo : ok /usr/bin/sudo
Checking for program hg : ok /usr/bin/hg
Checking for program valgrind : ok /usr/bin/valgrind
---- Summary of optional NS-3 features:
Threading Primitives : enabled
Real Time Simulator : enabled
Emulated Net Device : enabled
GNU Scientific Library (GSL) : enabled
Tap Bridge : enabled
GtkConfigStore : enabled
XmlIo : enabled
SQlite stats data output : enabled
Network Simulation Cradle : enabled
Python Bindings : enabled
Python API Scanning Support : enabled
Use sudo to set suid bit : not enabled (option --enable-sudo not selected)
Build examples and samples : enabled
Static build : not enabled (option --enable-static not selected)
'configure' finished successfully (2.870s)
@end verbatim
Note the last part of the above output. Some ns-3 options are not enabled by
default or require support from the underlying system to work properly.
For instance, to enable XmlTo, the library libxml-2.0 must be found on the
system. If this library were not found, the corresponding @command{ns-3} feature
would not be enabled and a message would be displayed. Note further that there is
a feature to use the program @code{sudo} to set the suid bit of certain programs.
This is not enabled by default and so this feature is reported as ``not enabled.''
Now go ahead and switch back to the debug build.
@verbatim
./waf -d debug configure
@end verbatim
The build system is now configured and you can build the debug versions of
the @command{ns-3} programs by simply typing,
@verbatim
./waf
@end verbatim
Some waf commands are meaningful during the build phase and some commands are valid
in the configuration phase. For example, if you wanted to use the emulation
features of @command{ns-3} you might want to enable setting the suid bit using
sudo as described above. This turns out to be a configuration-time command, and so
you could reconfigure using the following command
@verbatim
./waf -d debug --enable-sudo configure
@end verbatim
If you do this, waf will have run sudo to change the socket creator programs of the
emulation code to run as root. There are many other configure- and build-time options
available in waf. To explore these options, type:
@verbatim
./waf --help
@end verbatim
We'll use some of the testing-related commands in the next section.
Okay, sorry, I made you build the @command{ns-3} part of the system twice,
but now you know how to change the configuration and build optimized code.
@c ========================================================================
@c Testing ns-3
@c ========================================================================
@node Testing ns-3
@section Testing ns-3
@cindex unit tests
You can run the unit tests of the @command{ns-3} distribution by running the
``./test.py -c core'' script,
@verbatim
./test.py -c core
@end verbatim
These tests are run in parallel by waf. You should eventually
see a report saying that,
@verbatim
47 of 47 tests passed (47 passed, 0 failed, 0 crashed, 0 valgrind errors)
@end verbatim
This is the important message.
You will also see output from the test runner and the output will actually look something like,
@verbatim
Waf: Entering directory `/home/craigdo/repos/ns-3-allinone/ns-3-dev/build'
Waf: Leaving directory `/home/craigdo/repos/ns-3-allinone/ns-3-dev/build'
'build' finished successfully (1.799s)
PASS: TestSuite ns3-wifi-interference
PASS: TestSuite histogram
PASS: TestSuite sample
PASS: TestSuite ipv4-address-helper
PASS: TestSuite devices-wifi
PASS: TestSuite propagation-loss-model
...
PASS: TestSuite attributes
PASS: TestSuite config
PASS: TestSuite global-value
PASS: TestSuite command-line
PASS: TestSuite basic-random-number
PASS: TestSuite object
PASS: TestSuite random-number-generators
47 of 47 tests passed (47 passed, 0 failed, 0 crashed, 0 valgrind errors)
@end verbatim
This command is typically run by @code{users} to quickly verify that an
@command{ns-3} distribution has built correctly.
@c ========================================================================
@c Running a Script
@c ========================================================================
@node Running a Script
@section Running a Script
@cindex running a script with Waf
We typically run scripts under the control of Waf. This allows the build
system to ensure that the shared library paths are set correctly and that
the libraries are available at run time. To run a program, simply use the
@code{--run} option in Waf. Let's run the @command{ns-3} equivalent of the
ubiquitous hello world program by typing the following:
@verbatim
./waf --run hello-simulator
@end verbatim
Waf first checks to make sure that the program is built correctly and
executes a build if required. Waf then executes the program, which
produces the following output.
@verbatim
Hello Simulator
@end verbatim
@emph{Congratulations. You are now an ns-3 user.}
@emph{What do I do if I don't see the output?}
If you don't see @code{waf} messages indicating that the build was
completed successfully, but do not see the ``Hello Simulator'' output,
chances are that you have switched your build mode to ``optimized'' in
the ``Building with Waf'' section, but have missed the change back to
``debug'' mode. All of the console output used in this tutorial uses a
special @command{ns-3} logging component that is useful for printing
user messages to the console. Output from this component is
automatically disabled when you compile optimized code -- it is
``optimized out.'' If you don't see the ``Hello Simulator'' output,
type the following,
@verbatim
./waf -d debug configure
@end verbatim
to tell @code{waf} to build the debug versions of the @command{ns-3}
programs. You must still build the actual debug version of the code by
typing,
@verbatim
./waf
@end verbatim
Now, if you run the @code{hello-simulator} program, you should see the
expected output.
If you want to run programs under another tool such as gdb or valgrind,
see this @uref{http://www.nsnam.org/wiki/index.php/User_FAQ#How_to_run_NS-3_programs_under_another_tool,,wiki entry}.