Automating ns-3 experimentation in multi-host scenarios

ns-3 is a flexible simulator whose capabilities go beyond running purely synthetic simulations in a local desktop. Due to its ability to run unmodified Linux applications and to exchange traffic with live networks, ns-3 can be combined with live hosts to run distributed simulations or to transparently integrate live and simulated networks. Nevertheless, ns-3 multi-host experiment scenarios require considerable manual work and system administration. The NEPI experiment management framework automates deployment, execution, and result collection of experiment scenarios. In this paper we describe the internals of the NEPI framework that provides support for automation of ns-3 experiments, and demonstrate its usage for ns-3 multihost scenarios with three example cases: a) running parallel simulations on a cluster of hosts, b) running distributed simulations spanning multiple hosts, and c) integrating live and simulated networks.