Providing a graphical user interface for the modelling of network simulator 3 scenarios

The Network Simulator 3 (ns-3) uses a general programming language, C++, for the specification of network topologies, object parameters and simulation definitions. Although very flexible and powerful, in the sense it supports detailed and very customized network simulations, the initial use of ns-3 by the users is neither straightforward or simple, even for small simulations. In this paper we present the NSDL framework, a project aiming at providing support for the interoperability among heterogeneous network tools. Within the NSDL framework, we highlight a graphical user interface, Visual Network Descriptor, for the modelling of network simulation scenarios; and the structure of the process to generate the corresponding ns-3 simulation script. Also in this paper, and as case study, we describe several of the network domains covered by our framework.