Simulation of a Campus Backbone Network, a case- study

1 Research Assistant of the Fund of Scientific Research – Flanders (FWO-Vlaanderen) Abstract This paper describes the work performed in the framework of a Master’s thesis. The aim of the thesis was to make a simulation model in OPNET Modeler of the backbone at the K.U.Leuven, Belgium. The backbone consists of five Cisco Catalyst 5500 switches in a ring topology interconnected by full-duplex Gigabit Ethernet links. Accurate real-life measurements are used to add background traffic to this topology. The use of VLANs to separate traffic generated by students and personnel adds extra difficulties (the traffic is routed at different locations). This paper gives an overview of the results and the problems encountered.