Egbert Lin's Blog

“Life is not a race, but a journey to be savoured each step of the way” by Brian Dyson

[Quick and Easy] Installation of ns-3 Simulator with OpenFlow 1.3 - Tutorial

Posted on Edited on In Disqus:

ns-3 configuration and ofswitch13 module - Tutorial

I had deployed the ns-3 simulation with ofswitch13 successfully. I've been struggling to solve the simulation platform a lot of time. So, my experience is quite valuable and self-giving sharing for the ns-3 beginners.
The following procedure can be deployed on VMware/Virtual machine or cloud instance.
If your want to know how to deploy ns-3 on remote cloud instance easily, I will post an article to demonstrate full steps.

What is ns-3 Network Simulator?

  • A discrete-event network simulator for internet systems
  • Free software and open source
  • Packet level
  • C++ for core/ Python for bindings
  • Support under Linux, FreeBSD and Cygwin

ns-3 simulation workflow:

  1. Topology definition
  2. Model development
  3. Node and link configuration
  4. Execution
  5. Performance analysis
  6. Graphical Visualization

Key terms and abstractions:

  • Node: the virtual hardward (e.g., PC, server, router, smart phone, etc.)
  • Network device: transimts and receives over the channel with network layer
  • Channel: transmission medium between Network device (e.g. WiFi, p2p, csma)
  • Application: creates or receives data packet that send between Nodes with transport layer
  • Helper: ns-3 construct used to quickly configure and create the above

OpenFlow 1.3 module for ns-3

  • The OFSwitch13 module, which enhances the ns-3 Network Simulator with OpenFlow 1.3 capabilities
  • Allow ns-3 users to simulate Software-Defined Networks (SDN)
  • Support internal/external SDN controller
    OFSwitch13Device structure Fig. 1. The OFSwitch13Device internal structure

Main class function

  • OpenFlow 1.3 switch network device It can be used to interconnect ns-3 nodes using the existing CSMA network devices and channels.
  • OpenFlow 1.3 controller interface It provides the basic functionalities for controller implementation.
  • OpenFlow channel It is the interface that connects each switch to an OpenFlow controller.
  • ofsoftswitch13 library It provides the complete OpenFlow switch datapath implementation, including input and output ports, the flow-table pipeline for packet matching, the group table, and the meter table. It also provides the OFLib library that is used for converting internal messages to and from OpenFlow 1.3 wire format, and the dpctl utility for converting text commands into internal messages.
    The ofsoftwitch13 library architecture Fig. 2. The ofsoftswitch13 library architecture

Start to configure and build

  • Step 1. You have the following packages installed on your system 

    1
    $ sudo apt-get install build-essential gcc g++ python git mercurial unzip cmake
    1
    $ sudo apt-get install pkg-config autoconf libtool libboost-dev

  • Step 2. Download a recent stable ns-3 code (using the mercurial repository for ns-3.29) 

    1
    $ hg clone http://code.nsnam.org/ns-3.29

  • Step 3. Download the OFSwitch13 code into the src/ folder 

    1
    $ cd ns-3.29/src
    1
    $ git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/ljerezchaves/ofswitch13.git

  • Step 4. Update the code to the desired release version (using 4.0.0, which is compatible with ns-3.29 or later) 

    1
    $ cd ofswitch13
    1
    $ git checkout 4.0.0 && git submodule update –recursive

  • Step 5. It is time to compile the ofsoftswitch13 as a static library (Configure and build the library) 

    1
    $ cd lib/ofsoftswitch13
    1
    $ ./boot.sh
    1
    $ ./configure --enable-ns3-lib
    1
    $ make
    Warning: if you meet an error as “perl: warning: Setting locale failed”:
    Solution: Add export LC_ALL=“en_US.UTF-8” to bashrc file 
    1
    $ sudo vim .bashrc
    1
    export LC_ALL=“en_US.UTF-8”
    1
    $ sudo locale-gen zh_TW.UTF-8
    1
    $ sudo dpkg-reconfigure locales

  • Step 6. Go back to the ns-3 root directory and patch the ns-3 code with the appropriated patches available under the ofswitch13/utils directory 

    1
    $ cd ../../../../
    1
    $ patch -p1 < src/ofswitch13/utils/ofswitch13-src-3_29.patch
    1
    $ patch -p1 < src/ofswitch13/utils/ofswitch13-doc-3_29.patch

  • Step 7. Now, configure the ns-3 (Need to check --witch-ofswitch13=your path) 

    1
    $ ./waf configure --enable-tests --enable-examples --enable-sudo --with-ofswitch13=<br>/home/ubuntu/ns-3.29/src/ofswitch13/lib/ofsoftswitch13/

  • Step 8. Check for the enabled NS-3 OpenFlow 1.3 integration feature after the configuration

  • Step 9. Finally, build the ns-3 simulation 

    1
    $ sudo ./waf
    Warning: if you meet an error as below:

    Solution: Modify “SuidBuild” → “SuidBuild_task” 

    1
    $ sudo vim wscript


Now, you can run your first example script, enjoy it! 

1
$ ./waf --run scratch/ofswitch13.first
Notice:
1. Suggest moving your script to scratch folder before executing.
2. Don't add filename extension (e.g. .cc) at your execution's command line.