LAB: Canned Emulab

Introduction

In this lab you will obtain a user account on Emulab and create a simple network. This lab is meant as an introduction to the process of creating and executing a network within the Emulab world. In later labs Emulab will be used to prototype network architectures and to experiment with network performance.

Goals

• To get you involved with a simulation environment that supports the development of networking. When designing a new network, it is difficult to acquire all the hardware and software. Also, performance and other networking issues can be investigate prior to building the network.
• To do a controlled pass through creating and exercising a network within Emulab.

Acknowledgments

References

Emulab:

• Emulab
• Emulab FAQ
• Emulab Getting Started Tutorial

NS: There are two active versions of NS. So NS is changing and Emulab is changing. Here are some links to NS information, but using the Emulab GUI will alleviate much NS.

• ns-2 manual
• ns-2 tutorial
• ns-2 tutorial

Logistics

This lab is to complete the Emulab Getting Started Tutorial.

Each team should complete this assignment. Make sure to test out each team member's Emulab login and environment.

Preparation

Assignment

Should already be completed:

1. Go to Emulab and read the front-page description.
2. At the Emulab website, request an account, asking to join the project: Nelson

You will receive an email when you are approved as an Emulab user.

1. Look over the FAQ to know what sorts of answers you can find there when you have a question. Pay particular attention to the "Using the Testbed" section.
2. Work your way through the above Emulab tutorial

I know the ns code is already there, but I want you to add it to a lab report and to include the network drawing in your lab report (use screen capture). Also, capture the command sequence on your nodes and add this to the report.

Note that the tutorial sort of peters out after the experiment is set up. So continue by trying things of your own design.

Advice & Hints

Emulab is a shared resource used by many schools and research labs. Thus, for future exercises, you might have to schedule your time to ensure that you can get sufficient resources. The FAQ has some answers related to obtaining resources as well.

Lab Report - Issues

The basic format of lab reports will be to include a header with your name, the date, the course number, and the lab title. Margins, fonts, and anything else aren't terribly important as long as I can read it. This particular report is fairly simple. Please add enough text to make it clear what is what, but you don't need to write up long descriptions.

Screen shots are the easiest method to capture Emulab windows.

For this lab just turn in a screen shot of you network and answer the discussion question below.

In this case submit your lab report as emulab0.pdf or emulab0.txt.

Discussion Questions

1. Besides ns, what other options can you find for network simulation? How do they seem to compare? Do a search on Google
2. About how long did you spend on this assignment? Did you have any difficulty acquiring sufficient resources?

Grading

Finish the lab for full credit. If you don't do this, then some of the later labs will be very difficult.

Mike Erlinger

Last Modified Thursday, 06-Mar-2014 17:38:49 PST