[Hi Everyone] Ns3Visualizer – Qt-based PPDU Timeline & PHY/MAC Activity Visualization Tool for ns-3
zhangkai
My name is Kevin Zhang, and I am an undergraduate student working on network simulation and visualization tools. I would like to share an open-source visualization tool I developed for ns-3 simulations: Ns3Visualizer.
Ns3Visualizer is a Qt-based GUI application designed to provide interactive, time-based visualization of PHY/MAC layer activities, especially PPDU-level events.
Key features:
• PPDU timeline visualization
• PHY/MAC transmission activity tracking
• Throughput curve plotting
• Interactive zoom and inspection
• Compatible with modern ns-3 versions
The goal of this tool is to improve post-simulation analysis and provide more intuitive insight into wireless protocol behavior at the PHY/MAC layer. It may also help users who are less familiar with the ns-3 source code better understand simulation behavior.
The project is open-source and available here:
https://github.com/z14212638-eng/Ns3-based-Visualization
Documentation and tutorials are included in the repository.
Feedback, suggestions, and potential collaboration are warmly welcome.
Best regards,
Kevin Zhang
Charles Pandian
If you can add a few screenshots (in GitHub as well as here) to demonstrate the visualization of a simple ns-3 network scenario (wired and wireless) under your visualiser, then it will give a good introduction to your visualization tool.
Charles Pandian
zhangkai
Hi,
Thank you for your reminder — you are absolutely right. I forgot to include demonstrations here and on GitHub, and that was my mistake. I have now updated the repository with several demo examples.
I would like to present a classic scenario:
examples/wireless/wifi-txop-aggregation.cc
The screenshot below shows the result after running this example.(A short GIF for demo is also attached)
This tool captures all transmitted PPDUs and presents them in multiple forms, including:PPDU timeline visualization,Throughput plots and Terminal output logs
The UI interaction has also been carefully designed (although it still needs further improvement).
After selecting a scenario and clicking [Apply], the simulation starts and automatically switches to the timeline page.
In DIY mode, users can drag nodes inside the building layout (or manually set their positions),adjust the placement of access points and stations and configure simulation parameters via the configuration page
For most wireless scenarios, the Ns3Visualizer model (contrib/Ns3Visualizer) can sniff PPDUs and forward them to the GUI for visualization.
I believe this tool may be helpful for research and teaching purposes. It could also provide users who are not very familiar with ns-3 or C++ with a more intuitive way to “see” network simulations.
It is still under development and requires further improvements and bug fixing. I sincerely welcome feedback, suggestions, and issue reports here or on GitHub.
GitHub repository:
https://github.com/z14212638-eng/Ns3-based-Visualization
Charles Pandian
Suggestion: If the black background is not controlled by the theme, then I think making the background as white may improve the visibility.
For example, the visibility of the following network scenario is not so good.
If you try to visualize it with a white background, then you may understand.
If it is controlled by theme, then you may ignore this suggestion.
Charles Pandian.
zhangkai
Thanks for that ,I'm going to fix it and collect more suggestions about ui-style