A small and simple network simulator
TinyTS is a very small and simple network simulator. The main purpose of TinyTS is to enable you to implement, test and evaluate your own routing algorithms in a variety of network topologies. Although this can be done in a larger, professional simulator such as NS3, TinyNS has a number of features that allow you to focus on the fundamentals, instead of spending your time learning to use the tool:
- In its tiniest form, it is only 149 lines long. This means that you can understand the simulator inside and out, which makes it easier to modify it.
- It is written in Python, which is a very accessible language.
- It does not use discrete events. While this limits its power and flexibility, it results in a design that is very simple and easy to understand.
There are a few core ideas behind the simulator:
- There are two kinds of nodes: edge nodes and switches. An edge node generates and consumes packets; a switch forwards packets.
- Edge nodes have only one port; switches can have any number of ports.
- Nodes are connected by connecting their ports. Ports are bidirectional.
- The simulation consists of a repetition of these three steps:
- Edge nodes are allowed to receive one packet.
- Switches forward one packet stored in their memory.
- Edge nodes are allowed to transmit a packet.
You can find a more complete tutorial here.