Performance of distributed ns-3 network simulator

This paper presents the results of parallel simulations of mixed networks using the ns-3 simulator. The simulated networks consist of equal number of simple (leaf) nodes and router nodes, which form a small-world network. The active channels in the simulations link pairs of nodes with symmetric source and sink applications. All network traffic is restricted to a single-hop communications. The network partitioning among MPI ranks is accomplished using METIS library. The performance and scalability of the ns-3 network simulator is examined using a variety of metrics, e.g. memory footprint, packet transmission rate, and runtime statistics. Empirical relations are derived for the memory scaling. Further avenues are identified for improvement of the parallel ns-3 simulator.