A New Scalable Framework for Emulating Huge Networks

Abstract

Network emulation and simulation tools are widely used for preproduction, studies and researches purposes. This success is due to the quality of result they provide compared to the real equipments. Another advantage of the network simulators is that the cost of studies and experiences are exponentially reduced especially for networks that use expensive hardware or a big number of nodes. In the work done for fighting against Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) based on Botnet (malicious programs that take the control of many machines on behalf of the owners in order to attack services or send spams), a real time test of the trace-back and counter-attack algorithms is needed. So the emulation tool should be scalable in order to create thousands of bots with fewer resources. Unfortunately, the existing emulation/simulation tools suffer from some limitations like the nodes number that cannot exceed hundreds, have simulation concept or not scalable. That’s why it was decided to develope a new network emulator that implements huge networks. The aim of this paper is to present this new scalable framework that help to emulate network equipments and application based on UDP and TCP protocols with a huge number of nodes. It was developed basically for emulating DDoS attacks based on Botnets but it can be used for any other purposes like stress test for HTTP servers or telephony over IP services etc. General Terms Computer science, computer and network emulation, computer security