TARVOS Computer Networks Simulator page

TARVOS is a prototype for a new discrete event-based network simulator, designed as part of my Masters research.  It will provide support to simulating MPLS architecture, several RSVP-TE protocol functionalities and fast recovery in case of link failure.

TARVOS is open software, protected by GPL - GNU General Public License.  Download the source code for the last release of the simulator below.

Abstract

Several applications for computer networks require certain levels of Quality of Service (QoS).  Voice over IP (VoIP) applications, for instance, generally tolerate a certain amount of delay and support a low packet loss.  Conventional routing and forwarding protocols, used in computer networks, such as IP and OSPF, work based on the best effort philosophy.  I.e., metrics like link capacity, traffic characteristics, and moreover resource reservation are concepts not taken into consideration.  Although these protocols are robust when it comes to network fault recovery, for instance link failures, the mechanism responsible for fault recovery does not take into account the recovery time, which impacts directly onto the performance of applications.  The MPLS protocol, together with the signaling protocol RSVP-TE, provides functionalities that can be used as tools for Traffic Engineering in a computer network, comprising traffic flow control, resource utilization control, constraint routing, and also implementing an algorithm for fast recovery in case of failure.  All these factors can be used as to guarantee QoS levels for different applications.  From these concepts and from the initial interest in examining the effect of rapid recovery on an application’s performance, by using simulation, a number of available simulators are evaluated.  This leads to the building of a prototype for a computer networks simulator, named TARVOS Computer Networks Simulator, oriented to simulate the fast recovery functionality in MPLS and RSVP-TE networks.  TARVOS’ constructive details are demonstrated and its functionalities are explained, followed by a guide to model simulations.  Additionaly, in order to investigate and validate the prototype, the study of the effect of link failures on the performance of a VoIP application is presented.

Keywords:  computer networks, simulator, fault recovery, performance analysis, traffic engineering, quality of service, QoS, MPLS, RSVP-TE, VoIP, fast recovery, rapid recovery, simulation.

Download TARVOS (source code in C)

• The code is available at tarvos.codeplex.com.

Documentation and other reading Material

• TARVOS – an Event-Based Simulator for Performance Analysis, Supporting MPLS, RSVP-TE, and Fast Recovery (pdf) (2007)

  • Published in XIII Brazilian Symposium on Multimedia and the Web - Webmedia 2007, Oct. 20-24, 2007, Gramado, RS, Brazil, vol. 1, p. 222-229.

• Um Protótipo de Simulador de Redes de Computadores para Aplicações Específicas Baseadas no Protocolo MPLS.  Masters Dissertation (pdf) (2007)

Pending Work

• Translate comments within source code to English.
• Produce documentation.
• Convert this page into a real, respectful web page.