ns-allinone-2.26.tar.gz

User Commands NAM(1) NAME nam - VINT/LBL Network Animator SYNOPSIS nam [ -g geometry ] [ -t graphInput ][ -i interval ] [ -P peerName ] [ -N appName ] [ -c cacheSize ] [ -f configfile ] [ -S ] tracefile DESCRIPTION Nam is a Tcl/TK based animation tool for viewing network simulation traces and real world packet trace data. The first step to use nam is to produce the trace file. The trace file should contain topology information, e.g., nodes, links, as well as packet traces. The detailed format is described in the TRACE FILE section. Usually, the trace file is generated by ns(1). During an ns simulation, user can produce topology configurations, layout information, and packet traces using tracing events in ns. Refer to ns(1) for detailed information. When the trace file is generated, it is ready to be animated by nam. Upon startup, nam will read the trace file, create topology, pop up a window, do layout if necessary, then pause at the time of the first packet in the trace file. Through its user interface, nam provides control over many aspects of animation. These functionalities will be described in detail in the USER INTERFACE section. This version of nam is highly experimental - there will be bugs!. Please mail ns-developers@mash.cs.berkeley.edu if you encounter any bugs, or with suggestions for desired func- tionality. OPTIONS -g Specify geometry of the window upon startup. The format is described in X(1) -t [Information incomplete] Instruct nam to use tkgraph, and specify input file nam for tkgraph. -i [Information for this option may not be accurate] Specify rate (real) milliseconds as the screen update rate. The default rate is 50ms (i.e., 20 frames per second). Note that the X server may not be able to keep up with this rate, in which case the animation will run as fast as the X server allows it to (at 100% cpu utilization). -N Specify the application name of this nam instance. This application name may later be used in peer synchroniza- tion. SunOS 5.6 Last change: 04 Nov 1997 1 User Commands NAM(1) -P Specify the application name of the peer nam instance whose execution will be synchronized with the execution of this nam instance. Refer to the above option (-N) as how to specify application names. General usage is: (1) starting the first nam instance (slave) by: nam -N <name #1> <trace file name #1> Then start the second nam instance (which will be the master): nam -N <name #2> <trace file name #2> Then every animation control (play, stop, backward, but exclude other inspection and interactive operations such as monitoring) will be synchronized between the two instances. Please note that because this mechanism uses Tcl's send command, it requires that your X server used xauth as authentication. Specifically, you should add option `- auth <authorization file name rel='nofollow' onclick='return false;'>' when you starts your X server. Without this option, X will use xhost as authentication, which is too weak and considered insecure. Refer to man page of Xsecurity, xauth and Xserver for details, and the available authentication protocols. -c [Information incomplete] The maximum size of the cache used to store 'active' objects when doing backward ani- mation. -f Name of the initialization files to be loaded during startup. In this file, user can define functions which will be called in the trace file. An example for this is the 'link-up' and 'link-down' events of dynamic links in ns. (Refer to $ns rtmodel for detail, and tcl/ex/simple-dyn.tcl in your ns directory for exam- ple). Example initialization files can be found at ex/sample.nam.tcl and ex/dynamic-nam.conf. -S Enable synchronous X behavior so it is easier for graphics debugging. For UNIX system running X only. tracefile is the name of the file containing the trace data to be animated (format described in TRACE FILE section below). If tracefile cannot be read, nam will try to open tracefile.nam. OBJECTS IN NAM nam does animation using the following building blocks: node, link, queue, packet, agent, monitor. They are defined below: node Nodes are created from 'n' trace event in trace file. It represents a source/host/router, etc. nam will SunOS 5.6 Last change: 04 Nov 1997 2 User Commands NAM(1) terminate if there are duplicate definition for the same node. Node may have many shapes, (circle, square, and hexagon), but once created it cannot change its shape. Node may also have many colors, it can change its color during animation. Refer to ns(1) for related tracing events. link Links are created between nodes to form a network topology. nam links are internally simplex, but it is invisible to the users. The trace event 'l' creates two simplex links and other necessary setups, hence it looks to users identical to a duplex link. Link may have many colors, it can change its color during anima- tion. Refer to ns(1) for related tracing events. queue Queue needs to be constructed in nam between two nodes. Unlike link, nam queue is associated to a simplex link. The trace event 'q' only creates a queue for a simplex link. In nam, queues are visualized as stacked packets. Packets are stacked along a line, the angle between the line and the horizontal line can be specified in the trace event 'q'. packet Packet is visualized as a block with an arrow. The direction of the arrow shows the flow direction of the packet. Queued packets are shown as little squares. A packet may be dropped from a queue or a link. Dropped packets are shown as rotating squares, and disappear at the end of the screen. Dropped packets are not visible during backward animation. agent Agents are used to separate protocol states from nodes. They are always associated with nodes. An agent has a name, which is a unique identifier of th agent. It is shown as a square with its name inside, and a line link the square to its associated node. AUTOMATIC LAYOUT In nam, a topology is specified by alternating node objects with edge objects. But to display the topology in a comprehensible way, a layout mechanism is needed. Currently nam provides two layout methods. First, user may specify edges' orientations. An edge orien- tation is the angle between the edge and the horizontal line, in the interval [0, 2*pi). During layout, nam will honor the given edge orientations. Generally, it will first choose a reference node, then place other nodes using edge orientation and edge length, which is determined by link SunOS 5.6 Last change: 04 Nov 1997 3 User Commands