ndnSIM Docker image

Unofficial docker implementation of ndnSIM.

Dockerfiles can be found in the repository page.

ndnSIM is a patched version of the popular ns-3 network simulator, for details please visit the ndnSIM Introduction page.

Features

Features about that Docker image:

• providing both optimized and debug compiled ndnSIM (v2.8+ only)
• Python 2 for old simulations support (v2.8+ only)
• pipenv installed for your custom Python (2 & 3) dependencies (v2.8+ only)
• R & renv installed for your custom R dependencies (v2.8+ only)
• docker-compose with custom volume support for your simulations
• visualizer dependencies installed

Feel free to contribute with issues/PRs!

Usage

A simulation can be every NDN waf project in your drive, you just need to specify the absolute path.

A note on logging

Logging can be enabled using the NS_LOG variable, e.g. NS_LOG=ndn.Producer:ndn.Consumer.

As reported in ndnsim.net, to show logs you need ndnSIM to be compiled in debug mode.

From version 2.8 this Docker image supports optimized mode by default (e.g. 2.8 tag) and debug mode appending -debug (e.g. 2.8-debug): clearly you need to edit the docker run commands you see in this doc and in docker-compose.yml file.

In that case you will need to configure the simulation with the debug option enabled:

$ ./waf configure --debug
$ NS_LOG=ndn.Producer:ndn.Consumer ./waf --run=ndn-simple

docker

If you want to directly run a simulation into the docker container you can use the following command.

$ docker run \
    -u $(id -u):$(id -g) \
    -it \
    emrevoid/ndnsim:2.8 \
    /home/ndn/ndnSIM/ns-3/waf --run=bench-simulator

If you want to spawn a shell replace the last command line with bash, then execute the command. You can now type commands into the docker container. To run a simulation move into the proper location and run the waf command.

$ ./waf --run=bench-simulator

Run with visualizer

To run the visualizer you need to use the --vis option to the waf command.

Install x11docker to securely run the visualizer GUI.

$ x11docker \
    -- -v ~/hub/docker-ndnsim/simulation/:/simulation \
    -- emrevoid/ndnsim:2.8 \
    /home/ndn/ndnSIM/ns-3/waf --run=bench-simulator --vis

If you don't want to use it for any reason, check out their wiki.

Example:

$ xhost +SI:localuser:$(id -un)
$ docker run --rm \
    -it \
    -e DISPLAY=$DISPLAY \
    -v /tmp/.X11-unix:/tmp/.X11-unix:rw \
    -v ~/hub/docker-ndnsim/simulation/:/simulation \
    --ipc=host \
    --user $(id -u):$(id -g) \
    --cap-drop=ALL \
    --security-opt=no-new-privileges \
    emrevoid/ndnsim:2.8 \
    /home/ndn/ndnSIM/ns-3/waf --run=bench-simulator --vis

Separate scenario repository

As reported into ndnsim.net you can write and run simulations directly inside the NS-3 scratch/ or src/ndnSIM/examples/ folders.

But for separation of concerns it is recommended to use a separated repository for your scenario stuff (simulation sources, extensions, graph scripts...).

To make it available into the dockerized ndnSIM you can use the --volume option to mount local files into the isolated environment.

$ docker run \
    -u $(id -u):$(id -g) \
    -it \
    -v ~/hub/docker-ndnsim/simulation/:/simulation \
    emrevoid/ndnsim:2.8 \
    /simulation/waf configure && \
    /simulation/waf --run=simulation-source-file

...with visualizer

source

If you want to use visualizer module while running simulations from a separate repository you have to previously run the waf shell into the NS-3 folder:

~/ndnSIM/ns-3$ ./waf shell
$ cd ~/simulation
$ ./waf configure
$ PKG_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/lib ./waf --run ndn-simple --vis

docker-compose

Into the docker-compose.yml file you can edit the volumes and entrypoint entries according to your simulation location.

Comment the entrypoint entry if you want to spawn the container shell.

$ UID=$(id -u) GID=$(id -g) docker-compose run --rm ndnsim

Using docker-compose you will not need to use x11docker.

Using renv

From Using renv with Docker.

$ RENV_PATHS_CACHE_HOST=$(pwd)/simulation/renv_modules
$ RENV_PATHS_CACHE_CONTAINER=/home/ndn/renv_modules
$ docker run \
    -u $(id -u):$(id -g) \
    -it \
    -e "RENV_PATHS_CACHE=${RENV_PATHS_CACHE_CONTAINER}" \
    -v "${RENV_PATHS_CACHE_HOST}:${RENV_PATHS_CACHE_CONTAINER}" \
    emrevoid/ndnsim:2.8 \
    /home/ndn/ndnSIM/ns-3/waf --run=bench-simulator

For the docker-compose version just add the proper options as yml entries.

Troubleshooting

See here.

Thanks

• seintzz