Yes / Researchers have used the simulation technique to develop new networks and test, modify, and optimize existing ones. The scientific community has developed a wide range of network simulators to fulfil these objectives and facilitate this creative process. However, selecting a suitable simulator appropriate for a given purpose requires a comprehensive study of network simulators. The current literature on network simulators has limitations. Limited simulators have been included in the studies with functional and performance criteria appropriate for comparison not been considered, and a reasonable selection model for selecting the suitable simulator has not been presented. To overcome these limitations, we studied twenty-three existing network simulators with classifications, additional comparison parameters, system limitations, and comparisons using several criteria. / This work was supported by the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) Nigeria with grant number PTDF/ED/PHD/MAS/179/17.

The aim of the diploma thesis is to choose network simulator suitable for network technologies laboratory tasks for educational use. Theoretical part of thesis describes basics of network communication, addressing, reference models. Thesis also describes standards Wi Fi, Ethernet and routing protocol OSPF - technologies which are discussed in laboratory tasks. The practical part of diploma thesis describes a few available network simulators suitable for creating two laboratory tasks. Finally, the NS-3 simulator was chosen. Both laboratory tasks include theoretical introduction, detailed description of source code, individual tasks, expected outputs and control questions which senses understanding of discussed technologies.

Distributed Discrete Event Simulation (DDES) has received much attention in recent years, owing to the fact that uniprocessor based serial simulations may require excessive amount of simulation time and computational resources. It is therefore natural to attempt to use multiple processors to exploit the inherent parallelism in discrete event simulations in order to speed up the simulation process. In this dissertation we study the performance of distributed simulation of queueing networks, by analysing queueing models of message flows in distributed discrete event simulators. Most of the prior work in distributed discrete event simulation can be catego­rized as either empirical studies or analytic (or formal) models. In the empirical studies, specific experiments are run on both conservative and optimistic simulators to see which strategy results in a faster simulation. There has also been increasing activity in analytic models either to better understand a single strategy or to compare two strategies. Little attention seems to have been paid to the behaviour of the interprocessor message queues in distributed discrete event simulators. To begin with, we study how to model distributed simulators of queueing networks. We view each logical process in a distributed simulation as comprising a message sequencer with associated message queues, followed by an event processor. A major contribution in this dissertation is the introduction of the maximum lookahead sequencing protocol. In maximum lookahead sequencing, the sequencer knows the time-stamp of the next message to arrive in the empty queue. Maximum lookahead is an unachievable algorithm, but is expected to yield the best throughput compared to any realisable sequencing technique. The analysis of maximum lookahead, therefore, should lead to fundamental limits on the performance of any sequencing algorithm We show that, for feed forward type simulators, with standard stochastic assump-tions for message arrival and time-stamp processes, the message queues are unstable for conservative sequencing, and for conservative sequencing with maximum lookahead and hence for optimistic resequencing, and for any resequencing algorithm that does not employ interprocessor "flow control". It follows that the resequencing problem is fundamentally unstable and some form of interprocessor flow control is necessary in order to make the message queues stable (without message loss). We obtain some generalizations of the insta­bility results to time-stamped message arrival processes with certain ergodicity properties. For feedforward type distributed simulators, we study the throughput of the event sequencer without any interprocessor flow control. We then incorporate flow control and study the throughput of the event sequencer. We analyse various flow control mechanisms. For example, we can bound the buffers of the message queues, or various logical processes can be prevented from getting too far apart in virtual time by means of a mechanism like Moving Time Windows or Bounded Lag. While such mechanisms will serve to stabilize buffers, our approach, of modelling and analysing the message flow processes in the simulator, points towards certain fundamental limits of efficiency of distributed simulation, imposed by the synchronization mechanism. Next we turn to the distributed simulation of more general queueing networks. We find an upper bound to the throughput of distributed simulators of open and closed queueing networks. The upper bound is derived by using flow balance relations in the queueing network and in the simulator, processing speed constraints, and synchronization constraints in the simulator. The upper bound is in terms of parameters of the queueing network, the simulator processor speeds, and the way the queueing network is partitioned or mapped over the simulator processors. We consider the problem of choosing a mapping that maximizes the upper bound. We then study good solutions o! this problem as possible heuristics for the problem of partitioning the queueing network over the simulator processors. We also derive a lower bound to the throughput of the distributed simulator for a simple queueing network with feedback. We then study various properties of the maximum lookahead algorithm. We show that the maximum lookahead algorithm does not deadlock. Further, since there are no syn­chronization overheads, maximum lookahead is a simple algorithm to study. We prove that maximum lookahead sequencing (though unrealisable) yields the best throughput compared to any realisable sequencing technique. These properties make maximum lookahead a very useful algorithm in the study of distributed simulators of queueing networks. To investigate the efficacy of the partitioning heuristic, we perform a study of queue­ing network simulators. Since it is important to study the benefits of distributed simula­tion, we characterise the speedup in distributed simulation, and find an upper bound to the speedup for a given mapping of the queues to the simulator processors. We simulate distributed simulation with maximum lookahead sequencing, with various mappings of the queues to the processors. We also present throughput results foT the same mappings but using a distributed simulation with the optimistic sequencing algorithm. We present a num­ber of sufficiently complex examples of queueing networks, and compare the throughputs obtained from simulations with the upper bounds obtained analytically. Finally, we study message flow processes in distributed simulators of open queueing networks with feedback. We develop and study queueing models for distributed simulators with maximum lookahead sequencing. We characterize the "external" arrival process, and the message feedback process in the simulator of a simple queueing network with feedback. We show that a certain "natural" modelling construct for the arrival process is exactly correct, whereas an "obvious" model for the feedback process is wrong; we then show how to develop the correct model. Our analysis throws light on the stability of distributed simulators of queueing networks with feedback. We show how the stability of such simulators depends on the parameters of the queueing network.

Artificial neural network simulators are a research field which attracts the interest of researchers from various fields, from biology to computer science. The final objectives are the understanding of the mechanisms underlying the human brain, how to reproduce them in an artificial environment, and how drugs interact with them. Multiple neural models have been proposed, each with their peculiarities, from the very complex and biologically realistic Hodgkin-Huxley neuron model to the very simple 'leaky integrate-and-fire' neuron. However, despite numerous attempts to understand the learning behaviour of the synapses, few models have been proposed. Spike-Timing-Dependent Plasticity (STDP) is one of the most relevant and biologically plausible models, and some variants (such as the triplet-based STDP rule) have been proposed to accommodate all biological observations. The research presented in this thesis focuses on a novel learning rule, based on the spike-pair STDP algorithm, which provides a statistical approach with the advantage of being less computationally expensive than the standard STDP rule, and is therefore suitable for its implementation on stand-alone computational units. The environment in which this research work has been carried out is the SpiNNaker project, which aims to provide a massively parallel computational substrate for neural simulation. To support such research, two other topics have been addressed: the first is a way to inject spikes into the SpiNNaker system through a non-real-time channel such as the Ethernet link, synchronising with the timing of the SpiNNaker system. The second research topic is focused on a way to route spikes in the SpiNNaker system based on populations of neurons. The three topics are presented in sequence after a brief introduction to the SpiNNaker project. Future work could include structural plasticity (also known as synaptic rewiring); here, during the simulation of neural networks on the SpiNNaker system, axons, dendrites and synapses may be grown or pruned according to biological observations.

Το αντικείμενο της διατριβής αυτής είναι η μελέτη της διαστρωματικής (cross-layer) προσέγγισης ανάπτυξης ασύρματων δικτύων κατανεμημένης λειτουργίας με απαιτήσεις επικοινωνίας πραγματικού χρόνου και περιορισμένους διαθέσιμους πόρους. Επιπλέον βασικό στόχο αποτελεί και η σχεδίαση, πρόταση αντίστοιχης αρχιτεκτονικής η οποία στοχεύει στη βέλτιστη διαχείριση διαθεσίμων δικτυακών πόρων σε καταστάσεις συμφόρησης του δικτύου και κατά συνέπεια στην βελτίωση της απόδοσης αυτού. Μέσα από μελέτες στα πλαίσια της διατριβής αναδεικνύεται η σημασία του φαινομένου συμφόρησης ως κύριου παράγοντα σπατάλης δικτυακών πόρων καθώς και οδήγησης του δικτύου σε κατάσταση κορεσμού με αρνητική επίπτωση σε όλες τις παραμέτρους απόδοσης του δικτύου. Στόχος, λοιπόν, της προτεινόμενης επικοινωνιακής αρχιτεκτονικής είναι η αποφυγή του φαινομένου συμφόρησης έτσι ώστε το δίκτυο να οδηγείται δυναμικά σε ένα σταθερό σημείο απόδοσης (όσο αυτό είναι δυνατό) το οποίο θα επιτρέπει στο δίκτυο να αποδίδει όσο το δυνατόν καλύτερα αποφεύγοντας τη ίδια στιγμή άσκοπη σπατάλη πόρων. Βασική παράμετρος στη σχεδίαση αποτελεί η συμβατότητα τόσο ως προς σημαντικό εύρος διαθέσιμων πρωτοκόλλων σε διάφορα επίπεδα, όσο και ως προς τη δυνατότητα συνύπαρξης κόμβων που ενσωματώνουν την προτεινόμενη αρχιτεκτονική με κόμβους χωρίς αυτήν. Η προτεινόμενη αρχιτεκτονική υλοποιήθηκε στα πλαίσια γνωστού και αξιόπιστου δικτυακού εξομοίωση. Αξιολόγηση της υλοποίησης αυτής μέσα από μεγάλο αριθμό πειραμάτων έδειξε επίτευξη του στόχου καθώς το φαινόμενο της συμφόρησης αντιμετωπίστηκε σε όλες τις περιπτώσεις με σημαντικά οφέλη στην απόδοση του δικτύου και διαχείριση των πόρων. Επιπλέον, λόγω του μεγάλου βαθμού παραμετροποίησης αποτελεί ιδανική βάση για μελλοντικές προεκτάσεις. / This objective of this dissertation is the study of cross-layer approach applied on the development of distributed wireless networks with real-time response demands and scarce available resources. Furthermore, another main goal is the design and proposal of a respective network architecture aiming at optimum resource management under congestion scenarios and therefore maximization of network performance. Through various studies undertaken in the context of this dissertation the importance of the congestion problem is presented as a main factor leading the network to resource waste and saturation conditions negatively affecting all network performance metrics. Consequently, this dissertation aims in proposing a cross-layer architecture able to detect and tackle congestion phenomenon by dynamically retaining network performance at a steady state (as than is possible) where network performs optimally and resource waste in minimized. Among others, a main parameter is retaining compatibility with a wide range of widely used protocols of various layers as well compatibility concerning the coexistence in the same network of stations supporting with stations not supporting the proposed architecture. The proposed architecture is implemented in the context of widely known and used network simulator. Evaluation of this implementation through numerous simulations showed that the objectives are met since congestion phenomenon is tackled in most cases with significant benefits concerning network performance and resource management. Furthermore, due to the high parametrization degree it constitutes a very good base for future expansions.