DCNs-2: A Cloud Network Simulator Extension for ns-2

Abstract

The widespread exploitation of cloud technologies forces cloud providers to forecast peaks of requests to guarantee always the adequate quality of service to their currently served customers. Static resource provisioning is rarely affordable for large Data Center Networks (DCNs) and dynamic resource management can be rather complex, in particular for networking. Hence, we claim the relevance of simulator-based approaches, helpful in planning DCN deployment and in analyzing performance behaviors in response to expected traffic patterns. However, existing cloud simulators exhibit non-negligible limitations for what relates to the modeling of networking issues of cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) deployments. Therefore, we propose DCNs-2, a novel extension package for the ns-2 simulator, as a valid solution to efficiently simulate DCNs with all their primary entities, such as switches, physical machines, racks, virtual machines, and so on.