Automating ns-3 Experimentation in Multi-Host Scenarios

International audiencens-3 is a flexible simulator whose capabilities go beyond running purely synthetic simulations in a local desktop. Due to its ability to run unmodified Linux applications, to execute in real time mode, and to exchange traffic with live networks, ns-3 can be combined with live hosts to run distributed simulations or to transparently integrate live and simulated networks. Nevertheless, setting up ns-3 multi-host experiment scenarios might require considerable manual work and advanced system administration skills. The NEPI experiment management framework is capable of automating deployment, execution, and result collection of experiment scenarios that combine ns-3 with multiple hosts in various ways, reducing the burden of manual scenario setup. In this paper we describe the internals of the NEPI framework that provides support for automation of ns-3 experiments, and demonstrate its usage for ns-3 multi-host scenarios with three example cases: a) running parallel simulations on a cluster of hosts, b) running distributed simulations spanning multiple hosts, and c) integrating live and simulated networks