GloMoSim

Introduction

GloMoSim is a network protocol simulation software that simulates wireless and wired network systems. It is designed using the parallel discrete-event simulation capability provided by Parsec. GloMoSim currently supports protocols for a purely wireless network.

It uses the Parsec compiler to compile the simulation protocols.

Usage

Compute Systems Invocation Version(s)
SunOS (sparc) % tcsh /util/glomosim-2.03/ 2.03 (default)

Parsec

The PARSEC compiler, called pcc, accepts all the options supported by the C compiler, and also supports separate compilation. C programs (files with .c suffix) and object files (files with .o suffix) can also be compiled and linked with PARSEC programs. PARSEC programs are usually given a .pc extension.

The PCC_DIRECTORY needs to be set to the directory where parsec is installed. If this does not match the compiler won't be able to locate its include files.

GloMoSim

GloMoSim contains the following directories:

  1. /application contains code for the application layer
  2. /bin for executable and input/output files
  3. /doc contains the documentation
  4. /include contains common include files
  5. /mac contains the code for the mac layer
  6. /main contains the basic framework design
  7. /network contains the code for the network layer
  8. /radio contains the code for the physical layer
  9. /transport contains the code for the transport layer

A simulation file is given as an option to bin/glomosim. The program process the parameters of the input file and then generates output statistics and results.

Student will typically make changes to the networking protocols in the /network directory, recompile, and then see how these changes affect their results.

The glomosetup shell script

We install glomosim such that it looks to each user like a local glomosim installation in his home directory. In truth, many of the aforementioned directories are symlinks that point to directories in /util where the master copy of GloMoSim is kept. The reason for this is to save on disk space. Only the /main, /network, and /bin directories are actually copied over.

The 'glomosetup' shell script located in /util/glomosim-2.03/does the following…

  • Creates directories in the users home directory for GloMoSim, and the bin, main, and network sub directories.
  • Copies the contents of the bin, main, and network sub directories from /util to the user’s home directory installation.
  • Creates symlinks to the other GloMoSim directories.
  • Adds the needed environment variables from the 'paths' file into the user’s .cshrc file.
  • Runs a test GloMoSim input file.

Notes

  1. We cannot install glomosim on the GNU/Linux x86_64 systems because PARSEC, which glomosim depends on, is prebuilt/precompiled per system. The glomosim provider has not compiled PARSEC on a GNU/Linux x86_64 system.

References

  1. http://pcl.cs.ucla.edu/projects/glomosim/
  2. http://pcl.cs.ucla.edu/projects/parsec/
  3. http://www.icis.ntu.edu.sg/wagio/simtools.htm
  4. http://www.cse.buffalo.edu/~shambhu/cse56506/handouts/glomosim-tut2.pdf