Secondary research

Three most interesting products or software

SATEL Proof-TR4 / -TR9

SATEL Proof-TR4 / -TR9 are the radio modems we are using in the project to build our real network to get parameters for the simulation with ns-3. Satel provides four of these for us in addition to the antennas, necessary cables and radio modem configuration software. Radio modems are going to be used on Satel’s nominated test frequency, with nominated power level and with provided antennas. These radio modems have RS-232 interface that we are going to use most likely at 115200 bps speed. Also these radio modems support different air interface modulations and air interface encryption.

Raspberry Pi

Raspberry Pis are the computers we are using in our real network as sub stations to simulate remote terminal units (RTUs) i.e. sensors, actuators etc. These are provided for us by the school. Raspberry Pis are small computers that perform well on these tasks.

ns-3 Network Simulator

ns-3 is the simulation tool we are using in this project once we get the parameters from the real network. ns-3 is a discrete-event network simulator for Internet systems, targeted primarily for research and educational use. ns-3 is free software, licensed under the GNU GPLv2 license, and is publicly available for research, development, and use. We are using version 3.30.1 of this software.

Academic articles and journals

Network Simulations with the ns-3 Simulator

The article describes basic information about ns-3 discrete-event network simulator. The article is written by Thomas R. Henderson, Mathieu Lacage, and George F. Riley. Additional authors are Craig Dowell and Joseph B. Kopena.

ns-3 simulator is a replacement for ns-2 simulator that has long been a widely used simulator for research and education on Internet and other network systems. ns-3 is borrowed concepts and implementations from several open source simulators including ns-2, yans, and GTNetS. ns-3 differs from ns-2 in several ways, for example new software core that is designed to improve scalability, modularity, coding style, and documenation. The core is written in C++ but with an optional Python scripting interface. Other differences are attention to realism, software integration, support for virtualization, testbed integration, attribute system, and tracing architecture. 

ns-3 is open-source and licensed under GNU GPLv2 like ns-2, and welcomes developers and contributed code from across academia, industry, and government.

Network Simulations with the ns-3 Simulator

A performance comparison of recent network simulators

The article compares performance of five network simulators named ns-2, OMNeT++, ns-3, SimPy and JiST/SWANS by implementing an indentical simulation set-up in these simulators. The article is written by Elias Weingärtner, Hendrik vom Lehn and Klaus Wehrle.

Results reveal large differences according to both runtime performance and memory usage. Simulation runtime test showed that as network size grows SimPy does not scale well and should not be used in large-scale network simulations. ns-2 also showed weaknesses in this test. Rest of the network simulators OMNeT++, ns-3, and JiST performed quite well around the same speed (JiST was the fastest). Memory usage test showed that JiST uses up much more memory resources than the other simulation tools even if the garbage collection is manually triggered at times. ns-2, OMNeT++ and SimPy share a similar linear growth of memory usage, with ns-3 being the most efficient simulation tool in this test.

ns-3 demonstrated the best overall performance with both low computational and less memory demands. Although it was surpassed by JiST in terms of simulation runtime. Keeping scalability in mind good choices for network simulators are JiST, ns-3 and OMNeT++, but the answer is largely dependent on the specific use case.

A performance comparison of recent networksimulators

WHAT IS SCADA?

SCADA stands for Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition. It is software package that is positioned on top of hardware. SCADA in general is interfaced via Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs), or other commercial hardware modules.

SCADA systems are widely used in industry for Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition of industrial processes.

WHAT IS SCADA?