Abstract
Complexity of current computer networks, including e.g., local networks, large structured networks, wireless sensor networks, datacenter backbones, requires a thorough study to perform analysis and support design. Simulation is a tool of paramount importance to encompass all the different aspects that contribute to design quality and network performance (including as well energy issues, security management overheads, dependability), due to the fact that such complexity produces several interactions at all network layers that is not easily modellable with analytic approaches. In this systematic literature review we aim to analyze, basing our investigation on available literature, the adoption of a popular network simulator, namely ns-3, and its use in the scientific community. More in detail, we are interested in understanding what are the impacted application domains in which authors prefer ns-3 to other similar tools and how extensible it is in practice according to the experience of authors. The results of our analysis, which has been conducted by especially focusing on 128 papers published between 2009 to 2019, reveals that 10% of the evaluated papers were discarded because they represented informal literature; most of the studies presented comparisons among different network simulators, beyond ns-3 and conceptual studies related to performance assessment and validation and routing protocols. Only about 30% of considered studies present extensions of ns-3 in terms of new modules and only about 10% present effective case studies demonstrating the effectiveness of employing network simulator in real application, except conceptual and modeling studies.
Highlights
Computer networks are currently a cornerstone in traditional computing or business environment, and in many different application fields, such as cloud facilities, Industry 4.0, Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN), CyberPhysical Systems (CPS), 5G communication systems, critical infrastructures protection, automotive, railways, military applications such as ground support, Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence (C3I), modern military air force systems, and many other possible examples
Many alternatives exist for computer network simulation: in this Systematic Literature Review (SLR) we focus on ns-3, a modular, programmable, extensible, open, open-source, community-supported simulation framework for computer networks
The lowest percentage of application, corresponding to WSN (Wireless Sensor Networks), yet a popular application field, may be due to the fact that support for energy management, which is of paramount importance in this subdomain, is still under development, and quite novel as a topic in the literature per se, and to the fact that the implementation of the simulation stack for typical real-world configuration is recent and still to be completed: anyway, the aggregation of all wireless networking related subdomains
Summary
Computer networks are currently a cornerstone in traditional computing or business environment, and in many different application fields, such as cloud facilities, Industry 4.0, Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN), CyberPhysical Systems (CPS), 5G communication systems, critical infrastructures protection, automotive, railways, military applications such as ground support, Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence (C3I), modern military air force systems, and many other possible examples. The availability of more reliable and faster computing hardware is changing the balance between hardware and software and the structure of network devices as well: currently, both embedded, mainly hardware-based nodes may coexist with mainly software-based nodes, in which analogous functions are provided with different tools, and Software Defined Networks (SDN) are spreading aside conventional hardware-based infrastructures, basically reducing the logical portion of a network that is necessarily implemented in hardware to the essential components that ensure the connection This evolution, mainly pushed by the needs of cloud infrastructures and large computing infrastructures in general, such as warehouse scale computers, to allow easier deployment, control and management of complex networks, in turn enables a change of paradigm from distributed network control and logic to a centralized approach, including the ability of a nearly complete reconfiguration of all network nodes in a large installation by a single control and management node. The higher levels of the network stacks might be completely implemented in the cloud, such as in the case of 5G technologies that blur the communication and computing portions of the system, or, less extremely, 4G technologies that delegate some functions from the cell antenna to the terminals
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