Problem jointly developed by NS-3 and MOSAIC

[bigdream1196327270]

Hello, we are very grateful to you for developing the MOSAIC simulation tool. This helps a lot with the end-to-end communication between vehicles and cloud servers that we are developing to implement. However, the existing communication can not fully meet our needs, because we need to use NS-3 to achieve more sophisticated cellular communication. We have no idea how to develop LTE communication modules with MOSAIC and NS-3. Please help us with the following questions:

Question 1: If I want to implement the LTE communication module in MOSAIC and NS-3, can I only use ns3-federate to build and develop step by step instead of ns3_installer.sh directly?

Question 2: We have no idea if you can give some suggestions and implementation direction for the implementation of LTE communication module in MOSAIC and NS-3. For example, we need to modify or add what content in which files.

Question 3: Does ns3-federate plan to adapt a later version of NS-3 in the near future? If there are no plans in the near future, can we implement a higher version of NS-3 deployment through ns3-federate?

[hoelger]

Dear Kangyu Zhang,
Thank you for your message.
Actually it is likely that we will upgrade the existing ns3, so that it also can support 5G communication. We are just about to start, and decide if we upgrade omnet or ns3, later the development will take some time. This is done in context of a master thesis, so the progress might depend only on the student.

Now regarding your questions:
Re 1) I'm not sure if your question makes sense, because the ns3_installer will download the ns3-federate and install it.
Re 2) You need to setup the ns3-federate so that you can develop and extend it (see https://eclipse.dev/mosaic/docs/extending_mosaic/ns3_setup/ ). Then you have to alter it so that it supports the 5G communication mode.
Re 3) Once we touch ns3 it is likely that we upgrade to a newer version, but that's not decided either.

I hope I could help you, otherwise feel free to reach out again!

[bigdream1196327270]

Thank you very much for your answer! But I have a few more questions:

1. If I have a new communication module similar to cell, how should I apply it to MOSAIC. Are you able to give a general idea.
2. It would be interesting to know the operating logic of NS3_federate, i.e. how federate implements the communication link between NS3 and MOSAIC. Because only this will help us to develop new communication methods more effectively.

Very much looking forward to receive your reply!

[hoelger]

Dear Kangyu Zhang,
The architecture is inspired by the concept of "Higher Level Architecture" which is an architecture used to combine multiple simulations. Knowing this background will help you to understand the code better. https://www.hlaprogramming.com/
Other than that, I suggest you dive into the code, and try to duplicate the existing patterns. Either using MOSAIC Cell or MOSAIC SNS as template, if your new code is written in java, or using the ns3-federate https://github.com/mosaic-addons/ns3-federate as template, if your code is in C++ or any other non-java language.
Hope that helps!

[hoelger]

The ns3 LTE feature is now available and merged into the main branches.