The Network Workbench: network simulation software for academic investigation of Internet concepts

13 years 4 months ago

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Simulation offers significant advantages as a basis for academic projects in computer networking. many unimportant details can be abstracted away, and also because simulations can be completely repeatable, it is possible to address the same concepts more quickly than is possible with actual networks. At the same time, students who program a protocol for a network simulator come to understand the protocol much better than if they learn only from reading and lectures. This paper reports on a new network simulator, the Network Workbench, which is intended for use in the academic environment. It is discrete event simulation and structured around a five-layer stack abstracted from the Internet protocols (TCP/IP family). While the Workbench is less powerful than some tools used for investigation of larger networks or more complex protocols, it has compensating advantages. Its use can be learned quickly and it is sufficiently powerful, comprehensive, and extensible to allow investigation of ...

J. Mark Pullen

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