Need help to start simulating SDN over LTE

[iliya Alavy]

Hi everyone, 

I just started using NS-3 and am an absolute beginner (am reading/testing tutorial examples). I have to simulate Software-Defined Networking over a LTE network to see how handover can be improved. But since I am an absolute beginner, I have no idea where to start or what I should learn before actually beginning to code. Can any of you help me out and give me a general overview of how I should simulate my scenario? 

P.S: I am not sure whether there are available codes which can help me out or not. I did some googling and found some results (not exactly SDN over LTE) but have to finish NS-3 tutorial before completely understanding them. 

[noel.fa...@gmail.com]

Hi

Usually SDN networks use OpenFlow. If you're interested, there is an OpenFlow library that implements OpenFlow v1.3 (http://www.lrc.ic.unicamp.br/ofswitch13/). The openflow switch version that ns-3 ships with is v 0.8.9 which is very old. Apart from that this library simulates the control channel as well which the ns-3 one does not. I am planning to start using this library myself, so I don't know all the details but there is a manual that should get you started.

Hope I helped a bit :)

[iliya Alavy]

Thanks for you reply, I am checking out this library at the moment. Although, I think I'm gonna stick with NS-3 since it is a general purpose networking simulator and I might want to use it for my possible future papers in different research areas. 

Also, there's this emulator/simulator called "Mininet". You might want to check it out. (http://mininet.org/)

[pdbarnes]

There was a nice paper at PADS 2016 last week comparing several SDN simulators, including ns-3 and Mininet.

Also, I thought the supported OpenFlow version in ns-3 was recently bumped to 1.3 IIRC.

Peter

[noel.fa...@gmail.com]

Hi All,

@ iliya, using that library you would still be able to use ns-3 as you would normally, the only difference is you'll have a more up to date version of OpenFlow. I considered mininet but seeing as it is an emulator not simulator the results given may not always be accurate. See Comparison of SDN OpenFlow network simulator and emulators: EstiNet vs. Mininet for reference.

@pdbarnes afaik ns-3 still comes with open flow 0.8.9 out of the box. Re the PADS 2016 paper would you be so kind to send it to me if you have it or a link to it please? it would be greatly appreciated.

[Kuldeep Singh]

Hi,

Following is the link to the mentioned paper:

http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2901391

Regards,

Kuldeep

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[Noel Farrugia]

Thank you so much for this! :)

Cheers,

Noel

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[iliya Alavy]

Thank you all for your replies. I am currently checking out ofswitch13 to use it for my simulation (as Noel kindly lead me to it). 

Another thing though. Since there are available tools like LENA to simulate a LTE network I've been thinking of the following steps to do my final simulation:

1- Reading/watching some more NS-3 tutorials.

2- Simulating a LTE network without SDN 

3- Simulating a SDN network (Just to learn things)

4- Apply step 3 to step 2 

5- Work on handover 

Do you think if I am on the right path? 

[noel.fa...@gmail.com]

Hi iliya,

I managed to install and build some simple networks using the ofswitch13 library, so if you're stuck I can help you there.

Regarding your other question, I have never used LENA so I don't have any feedback there. But what I did to get a good grasp of ns-3 is to complete the tutorial. I didn't just read the tutorial, I"ve also re-written some of the examples in my own way. That helped a lot in my case.

Hope this helps a bit.

[iliya Alavy]

Hi Noel,

Thanks for your offer. I haven't started building ofswitch13 library yet. If I had any problem with it, I'll make sure to ask you ;)

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Regards,

iliya Mir-Alavy

Department of Science and Computer Engineering,

Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran

[manikantan srinivasan]

Dear Noel

Greetings.

Similar to Iliya, i am exploring SDN work on LTE, using Ns-3. I could successfully integration OFSwitch1.3 with ns-3.24 version, however have difficulty integrating (compiling/linking) to ns-3.25, and ns-3.26 (./waf configure) does not recognize the path.

Do you have success of OFSwitch1.3 with ns-3.26? If so pointers will be much appreciated.

Best Regards
Mani
(Manikantan Srinivasan)

[Noel Farrugia]

Hi Mani,

I managed to configure it to work with ns3.25 but I dont have any feedback re

ns3.26. As far as I know ns3.26 is not listed in the documentation as being

tested on/supported. The documentation can be accessed from here

http://www.lrc.ic.unicamp.br/ofswitch13/

Cheers,

Noel

--

[Luciano Jerez Chaves]

Hi,

The current OFSwitch13 stable release (version 2.0.3) can work with ns-3 from versions 3.22 to 3.25. This release does not support 3.26 due to many changes on queue interfaces and the introduction to traffic control layer on recent ns-3 releases. However, the next OFSwitch13 release (which will be 3.0.0) will provide full integration with ns-3.26 (and probably with ns-3.27 too), but with no backward compatibility. If you want to get your hands on it now, you can update your OFSwtich13 working copy to the development branch (namely ofswitch13 branch). The development code can now be considerable as stable, but I'm still testing it and waiting for the ns-3.27 release before launching this new version. 

Cheers,

[manikantan srinivasan]

Dear Sir,

Greetings and thank you for the update on OFSwtch13 w.r.to ns-3.26. I will check out the development branch.

Currently i am familiarizing with OFSwitch13 using ns-3.25 (as it is the officially declared stable release).

Can you please share the  status w.r.to external controller support in OFSwitch13 Release 3.0.0? (in 2.0.3 it is stated as not tested and the example code provided might have a challenge).

I would like to use floodlight controller (accessed via tapbridge module) and use it control the openflow enabled network in ns-3.

Thank you

Kind regards

Mani

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[Luciano Jerez Chaves]

The external controller support is not working by now. In 2.0.3 I was testing it but I couldn’t make it work so I gave up and removed the examples and documentation for the 3.0.0 release. I don’t have plans to go back to this by now, but maybe in the future.

Luciano.

[manikantan srinivasan]

Dear sir,

The issue i faced with OFSwitch13 release 2.0.3 wth ns-3.25 i fixed with the following changes

1) Included "ns3/internet-apps-module.h" in the extenal-controller.cc file

    - This was required as a first step, since without this it was giving a compilation error for V4PingHelper

  

2) updated the wscript file in the ofswitch13 folder

module = bld.create_ns3_module('ofswitch13', ['internet', 'bridge', 'mpi', 'network', 'core', 'stats', 'csma', 'point-to-point', 'applications'])

as

module = bld.create_ns3_module('ofswitch13', ['internet', 'bridge', 'mpi', 'network', 'core', 'stats', 'csma', 'point-to-point', 'applications','internet-apps'])

    - This was required as second step, since a linking error was faced. Doing this change ensured that the library with V4PingHelper is indeed available at the linking

and these two changed enables me to use OFSwitch13 Rel 2.0.3 with ns-3.25.

FYKI

Kind regards

Mani

On Tue, Jan 24, 2017 at 6:05 PM, Luciano Jerez Chaves <ljerez...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Shabeer Ahmad]

Hello Dear
I hope you will be good. i am new user of NS3 and i have done Openflow1.3 module. i have done two example in documentation in which they consider Two Hosts, one open flow switch and one controller. i want to connect users with hosts and create my own topology, later i will design one module for mobility , if user is going far from the hosts or eNb so how the SDN controller will select the optimal eNb for that user (in case of handover . your Help will be highly appreciated. Thanks.

[Shabeer Ahmad]

Noel Farrugia

Hello Dear
I hope you will be good. i am new user of NS3 and i have done Openflow1.3 module. i have done two example in documentation in which they consider Two Hosts, one open flow switch and one controller. i want to connect users with hosts and create my own topology, later i will design one module for mobility , if user is going far from the hosts or eNb so how the SDN controller will select the optimal eNb for that user (in case of handover . your Help will be highly appreciated. Thanks.

[Shabeer Ahmad]

Hello Sir,
I hope you will be fine, there is no error in the code but i cant get the graph of this code,  could you check this code? your help will be highly appreciated.


#include <ns3/core-module.h>
#include <ns3/network-module.h>
#include <ns3/csma-module.h>
#include <ns3/internet-module.h>
#include <ns3/ofswitch13-module.h>
#include <ns3/internet-apps-module.h>
#include "ns3/lte-helper.h"
#include "ns3/epc-helper.h"
#include "ns3/ipv4-global-routing-helper.h"
#include "ns3/mobility-module.h"
#include "ns3/lte-module.h"
#include "ns3/applications-module.h"
#include "ns3/point-to-point-helper.h"
#include "ns3/config-store.h"

using namespace ns3;

int
main (int argc, char *argv[])
{

  uint16_t simTime = 10;
  bool verbose = false;
  bool trace = false;
  uint16_t numberOfUEs = 4;
  uint16_t numberOfeNbs = 2;

  Ptr<LteHelper> lteHelper = CreateObject<LteHelper> ();
  Ptr<PointToPointEpcHelper>  epcHelper = CreateObject<PointToPointEpcHelper> ();
  lteHelper->SetEpcHelper (epcHelper);

  // Configure command line parameters
  CommandLine cmd;
  cmd.AddValue ("simTime", "Simulation time (seconds)", simTime);
  cmd.AddValue ("verbose", "Enable verbose output", verbose);
  cmd.AddValue ("trace", "Enable datapath stats and pcap traces", trace);
  cmd.Parse (argc, argv);

  if (verbose)
    {
      OFSwitch13Helper::EnableDatapathLogs ();
      LogComponentEnable ("OFSwitch13Interface", LOG_LEVEL_ALL);
      LogComponentEnable ("OFSwitch13Device", LOG_LEVEL_ALL);
      LogComponentEnable ("OFSwitch13Port", LOG_LEVEL_ALL);
      LogComponentEnable ("OFSwitch13Queue", LOG_LEVEL_ALL);
      LogComponentEnable ("OFSwitch13SocketHandler", LOG_LEVEL_ALL);
      LogComponentEnable ("OFSwitch13Controller", LOG_LEVEL_ALL);
      LogComponentEnable ("OFSwitch13LearningController", LOG_LEVEL_ALL);
      LogComponentEnable ("OFSwitch13Helper", LOG_LEVEL_ALL);
      LogComponentEnable ("OFSwitch13InternalHelper", LOG_LEVEL_ALL);
    }

  // Enable checksum computations (required by OFSwitch13 module)
  GlobalValue::Bind ("ChecksumEnabled", BooleanValue (true));

  // Create enbNodes
  NodeContainer enbNodes;
  enbNodes.Create (numberOfeNbs);

  // Create ueNodes
  NodeContainer ueNodes;
  enbNodes.Create (numberOfUEs);

  // Create the switch node
  Ptr<Node> switchNode = CreateObject<Node> ();

  // Use the CsmaHelper to connect enbNodes to the switch node
  CsmaHelper csmaHelper;
  csmaHelper.SetChannelAttribute ("DataRate", DataRateValue (DataRate ("100Mbps")));
  csmaHelper.SetChannelAttribute ("Delay", TimeValue (MilliSeconds (2)));

  NetDeviceContainer enbDevices;
  NetDeviceContainer ueDevices;
  NetDeviceContainer switchPorts;
  for (size_t i = 0; i < enbNodes.GetN (); i++)
    {
      NodeContainer pair (enbNodes.Get (i), switchNode);
      NetDeviceContainer link = csmaHelper.Install (pair);
      enbDevices.Add (link.Get (0));
      switchPorts.Add (link.Get (1));
    }

      for (size_t j = 0; j < ueNodes.GetN (); j++)
      {
        NodeContainer pair2 (ueNodes.Get (j), enbNodes.Get (0));
        NetDeviceContainer link2 = csmaHelper.Install (pair2);
        ueDevices.Add (link2.Get (0));
        enbDevices.Add (link2.Get (2));
      }
/*
  CsmaHelper csmaHelper2;
  csmaHelper2.SetChannelAttribute ("DataRate", DataRateValue (DataRate ("100Mbps")));
  csmaHelper2.SetChannelAttribute ("Delay", TimeValue (MilliSeconds (2)));

  NetDeviceContainer ueDevices;
  NetDeviceContainer enbDevices2;
  for (size_t i = 0; i < enbNodes.GetN (); i++)
    {
        for (size_t j = 0; j < ueNodes.GetN (); j++)
        {
        NodeContainer pair (ueNodes.Get (j), enbNodes.Get (i));
        NetDeviceContainer link = csmaHelper2.Install (pair);
        ueDevices.Add (link.Get (0));
        enbDevices2.Add (link.Get (1));
        }
    }
*/

  // Create the controller node
  Ptr<Node> controllerNode = CreateObject<Node> ();

  // Configure the OpenFlow network domain
  Ptr<OFSwitch13InternalHelper> of13Helper = CreateObject<OFSwitch13InternalHelper> ();
  of13Helper->InstallController (controllerNode);
  of13Helper->InstallSwitch (switchNode, switchPorts);
  of13Helper->CreateOpenFlowChannels ();

  // Install the TCP/IP stack into hosts nodes
  InternetStackHelper internet;
  internet.Install (enbNodes);
  internet.Install (ueNodes);

  // Set IPv4 host addresses
  Ipv4AddressHelper ipv4helpr;
  Ipv4InterfaceContainer hostIpIfaces;
  ipv4helpr.SetBase ("10.1.1.0", "255.255.255.0");
  hostIpIfaces = ipv4helpr.Assign (enbDevices);
  hostIpIfaces = ipv4helpr.Assign (ueDevices);
/*
  Ipv4AddressHelper ipv4helpr2;
  Ipv4InterfaceContainer hostIpIfaces2;
  ipv4helpr2.SetBase ("10.1.1.0", "255.255.255.0");
  hostIpIfaces2 = ipv4helpr2.Assign (ueDevices);
*/
  // Configure ping application between hosts
  V4PingHelper pingHelper = V4PingHelper (hostIpIfaces.GetAddress (1));
  pingHelper.SetAttribute ("Verbose", BooleanValue (true));
  ApplicationContainer pingApps = pingHelper.Install (ueNodes);
  pingApps.Start (Seconds (1));

  // Enable datapath stats and pcap traces at hosts, switch(es), and controller(s)
  if (trace)
    {
      of13Helper->EnableOpenFlowPcap ("openflow");
      of13Helper->EnableDatapathStats ("switch-stats");
      csmaHelper.EnablePcap ("switch", switchPorts, true);
      csmaHelper.EnablePcap ("eNodeB", enbDevices);
      csmaHelper.EnablePcap ("UE", ueDevices);
    }

  // Run the simulation
  Simulator::Stop (Seconds (simTime));
  Simulator::Run ();
  Simulator::Destroy ();

}






On Friday, May 27, 2016 at 3:21:41 AM UTC+8, Noel Farrugia wrote:

[Luciano Jerez Chaves]

Hi Shabeer,

I was looking at your code. In fact, there's no errors at compile time. But when trying to run it I get a segfault error. Using gdb to see what's happening, it shows that the problem is the empty hostIpIfaces containter that you are trying to use when creating your V4PingHelper. When you set the Ipv4 host addresses, you are overriding the container, so your container only have one element and because of that accessing the second element (index 1) will fail. You need to replace

  hostIpIfaces = ipv4helpr.Assign (enbDevices);
  hostIpIfaces = ipv4helpr.Assign (ueDevices);

by

  hostIpIfaces = ipv4helpr.Assign (enbDevices);
  hostIpIfaces.Add (ipv4helpr.Assign (ueDevices));

and the simulation will run.

By the way, I don't know what you mean by "I cant get the graph of this code", but keep in mind that the OFSwitch13 module doesn't produce any graphical output. You may need to use pcap traces or any other tracing mechanism to "see the things happening". 

Finally, about your previous message when you explains that you want to create your own topology. Please, note that the host on your simulation script are just standard ns-3 nodes. They are not base stations (neither Wifi APs nor LTE eNBs), so, you can't connect (wireless) users to them. If you try to configure them as base stations the OFSwitch13 module will probably not work. This is because the OFSwitch13 module (as the OpenFlow protocol) were originally designed for wired switches connected over Ethernet links. Currently there's no support for OFSwitch13 and wireless nodes in ns-3.

Cheers,

Luciano J C.

[Shabeer Ahmad]

Hello Sir,

Thank you so much for your help and kind response. . Sir my research Topic is Mobility management for sdn based cellular network. so first of all i want to make topology in ns3. i need to consider SDN controller , open flow switch protocol to connect data plane and control plane , eNBs and user. so the first step is that i need connect eNB with user and it should communicate with sdn controller by using openfloe1.3 module. Sir if you have similar code that you build a network using open flow 1.3 module send it to me. your help will be highly appreciated.

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[Shabeer Ahmad]

i replaced the code it can run successfully now. also i used the pcap traces but i didn't get result. i can see just the build successfully.

[Luciano Jerez Chaves]

Hello,

From what I see in your picture, you are trying to split the eNB control and user planes using the OpenFlow protocol, so you can configure the user plane of several eNBs and handle the UE mobility (handover) in a centralized way.

The problem is that the OFSwitch13 is not prepared for this type of simulation because the module was implemented considering the original OpenFlow ideia of managing L2 switches. The eNB user plane is much more complex than just forwarding packets from one port to another. So, if you want to use ns-3 for these simulation you will need to extend the module and program all these features. This would be a very helpful contribution to the ns-3 community, but I think this may not be an easy task.

Cheers,

--
Luciano J C

On 11 Jan 2018, at 10:20, Shabeer Ahmad <shabe...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hello Sir,

Thank you so much for your help and kind response. . Sir my research Topic is Mobility management for sdn based cellular network. so first of all i want to make topology in ns3. i need to consider SDN controller , open flow switch protocol to connect data plane and control plane , eNBs and user. so the first step is that i need connect eNB with user and it should communicate with sdn controller by using openfloe1.3 module. Sir if you have similar code that you build a network using open flow 1.3 module send it to me. your help will be highly appreciated.

<image.png>

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[Shabeer Ahmad]

Hello Sir, 

Thank you for giving me your time. YES i want to decouple control plane and user plane , i need to configure
the user plane of several eNBs or small cells and handle the user mobility in case of handover in a centralized way. if open flow 13 is not prepared for this type of simulation so what will you recommend me, how to use open-flow for my scenario.  ? your help will be appreciated.

[Luciano Jerez Chaves]

Hi, 

So, what you are trying to do is to use the SDN paradigm to split the control and user planes of LTE eNBs and this is ok. However, you are trying to do it using OpenFlow and, in my opinion, this is not going to work.

SDN is a network paradigm while OpenFlow is one of many possible SDN implementations. The OpenFlow was designed to split the control and user plane of ethernet switches, not eNBs (which are completely different network equipments). So, the OFSwitch13 module (which follows the original OpenFlow 1.3 specification), won’t help you with that.

Some papers tries to extend the OpenFlow with new messages that can be used to configure the eNB user plane. They generally specify a new set of OpenFlow messages but uses none of the exiting messages. So, why using OpenFlow in this case if you are using nothing of the original protocol? In my point of view, this doesn’t make any sense.

As far as I know, there’s no simulation tools just ready for you to create a scenario like this one. You’ll probably need to extend existing simulation models to meet your needs.

Cheers,

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Luciano J C

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[Shabeer Ahmad]

Hello Sir

Thanks for your prompt reply .yes i want to decouple the user plane and control plane of LTE but as i know these two plan communicate with each other by using open flow protocol. the main task of my research is to compare the LTE system and sdn based Lte . Evolute the performance of sdn based LTE. 

[haider rizvi]

Hello shabeer bhai can you send link of SDN based code i am working on it i shall be very kind for you

[only god know]

need help too,i want to compare the LTE system and sdn based Lte 

[SHARATHKUMAR S]

Hello Guys................

This is a good group to discuss the issues in NS3......I am also started to work on fault tolerance in SDN. So, anyone who has worked on this concept .........please let me know on what issues can i work out and if possible can you provide me the NS3 code for the same...........

Thanks

Sharath

On Sunday, May 22, 2016 at 11:54:46 PM UTC+5:30, iliya Alavy wrote:

Hi everyone, 

I just started using NS-3 and am an absolute beginner (am reading/testing tutorial examples). I have to simulate Software-Defined Networking over a LTE network to see how handover can be improved. But since I am an absolute beginner, I have no idea where to start or what I should learn before actually beginning to code. Can any of you help me out and give me a general overview of how I should simulate my scenario? 

P.S: I am not sure whether there are available codes which can help me out or not. I did some googling and found some results (not exactly SDN over LTE) but have to finish NS-3 tutorial before completely understanding them.