An Object-Oriented Framework for Parallel Simulation of Ultra-large Communication Networks

Abstract

Communication networks have steadily increased in size and complexity to meet the growing demands of applications. Simulations have been used to model and analyze modern communication networks. Modeling and simulation of networks involving thousands of nodes is hard due to their sheer size and complexity. Complete models of the ultra-large networks need to be simulated in order to conduct in-depth studies of scalability and performance. Parallel simulation techniques need to be efficiently utilized to obtain optimal time versus resource tradeoffs. Due to the complexity of the system, it becomes critical that the design of such frameworks follow well established design principles such as object oriented (OO) design, so as to meet the diverse requirements of portability, maintainability, extensibility, and ease of use. This paper presents the issues involved in the design and implementation of an OO framework to enable parallel simulation of ultra-large communication networks. The OO techniques utilized in the design of the framework and the application program interfaces needed for model development are presented along with some experimental results.