This page is a resource for learning about ns-3 as an educational tool for networking education.

ns-3 has been used as courseware for labs in undergraduate and graduate computer networking courses. ns-3 has also been used for student projects in graduate courses.

Note: If you are using ns-3 in your networking course, please contact Tom Henderson if you need support in this regard, or if you would like to list your course below as an example course that uses ns-3.

Papers

The 2009 First International Workshop on Education Technology and Computer Science (ETCS ‘09) had a paper on teaching ns-3 titled Research of Teaching on Network Course Based on NS-3.

The 2011 Sigcomm Education workshop had a paper regarding ns-3 use in the classroom An Open-source and Declarative Approach Towards Teaching Large-scale Networked Systems Programming.

Courses using ns-3

The following courses have used ns-3 as courseware or to support student projects. We believe there are many more such courses that are presently unlisted; for example, ns-3 is reportedly in wide use throughout the IIT and NIT systems in India. We would like to document any such usage on this page, so please contact us if you would like your course to be added to the list.

• Georgia Tech ECE 6110, Spring 2022.

• University of Washington EE 595. Tom Henderson and Collin Brady developed lab exercises using ns-3 to explore wireless link fundamentals, M/M/1 queueing, Wi-Fi DCF performance, LTE handover, and TCP performance. Student projects were also largely conducted using ns-3. Sumit Roy also taught in this course, which was offered in Winter 2019. Lab exercises and general guidelines for getting started with ns-3 in a course are posted at the above link.

• IIIT Delhi Wireless Networks CSE/ECE 538. This course covers a variety of mobile systems (wireless LANs, cellular systems), design of various layers in the network stack in the context of wireless communication. ns-3 has been used for student projects in Monsoon 2017, Winter 2019, and Winter 2020.

• Northeastern University EECE 5155 Prof. Tommaso Melodia reported that students used ns-3 in this course to study the performance of a multi-hop IEEE 802.11 network using UDP as transport-layer protocol as different transmission mechanisms, routing algorithms, and network sizes affected performance metrics such as throughput, delay, delivery ratio, and energy consumption. Spring 2019.
• Georgia Tech. ECE 6110 Dr. George Riley, Spring 2013, Fall 2011, and Fall 2010
• The University of Kansas
  • EECS 780 Dr. James Sterbenz, Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015, Fall 2014, Spring 2013, Spring 2012, Spring 2011, Spring 2010, Spring 2009
  • EECS 882 Dr. James Sterbenz, Spring 2016, Fall 2013, Fall 2011, Fall 2009
  • EECS 983 Dr. James Sterbenz, Spring 2014, Spring 2012, Spring 2010
• University of Pennsylvania CIS 553/TCOM 512 Dr. Boon Thau Loo, Spring 2013, also Fall 2010
• Aalto University Jose Costa-Requena and Markus Peuhkuri, Fall 2011
• Indian Institute of Technology Bombay Bhaskaran Raman, Autumn 2011, Autumn 2010, Autumn 2009, and Autumn 2008
• University of Rijeka
  • RM2-Inf, Dr. Mario Radovan and Dr. Vedran Miletić, Spring 2015, Spring 2014, Spring 2013, and Spring 2012
  • RM-RiTeh, Dr. Mladen Tomić and Dr. Vedran Miletić, Spring 2014 and Spring 2013
• Queen’s University CISC 834 Dr. Hossam S. Hassanein, Ramy Atawia and Hisham Farahat, Winter 2015, Fall 2013, and Fall 2012

Other resources

• Lalith Suresh’s Lab Assignments using ns-3 page.

ns-2 Education

This page contains references to the use of ns-2 and nam in education: http://www.isi.edu/nsnam/ns/edu/