A real-time network simulation infrastructure based on OpenVPN

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2008.08.015 Byline: Jason Liu, Yue Li, Nathanael Van Vorst, Scott Mann, Keith Hellman Keywords: Network simulation; Network emulation; Real-time simulation; Virtual private network Abstract: We present an open and flexible software infrastructure that embeds physical hosts in a simulated network. In real-time network simulation, where real-world implementations of distributed applications and network services can run together with the network simulator that operates in real-time, real network packets are injected into the simulation system and subject to the simulated network conditions computed as a result of both real and virtual traffic traversing the network and competing for network resources. Our real-time simulation infrastructure has been implemented based on Open Virtual Private Network (OpenVPN), modified and customized to bridges traffic between the physical hosts and the simulated network. We identify the performance advantages and limitations of our approach via a set of experiments. We also present two interesting application scenarios to show the capabilities of the real-time simulation infrastructure. Author Affiliation: School of Computing and Information Sciences, Florida International University, Miami, 11200 SW 8th Street, ECS 261B, FL 33199, USA Department of Mathematical and Computer Sciences, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO 80401, USA Article History: Received 6 February 2008; Revised 4 August 2008; Accepted 4 August 2008 Article Note: (footnote) [star] This article is an extended version of early work published at the 2007 INFOCOM MiniSymposium (). Part of this work was done when Dr. Jason Liu was at the Colorado School of Mines.