Availability

This release is immediately available from here.

Supported platforms

ns-3.6 has been tested on the following platforms:

  • linux x86 gcc 4.4.1, 4.2, 4.1, and, 3.4.6.
  • linux x86_64 gcc 4.4.0, 4.3.2, 4.2.3, 4.2.1, 4.1.3, 3.4.6
  • MacOS X ppc and x86 (gcc 4.0.x and 4.2.x)
  • cygwin gcc 3.4.4 (debug only), gcc 4.3.2 (debug and optimized)

Not all ns-3 options are available on all platforms; consult the Installation page for more information.

New user-visible features

  • 802.11 models:
    • Add an implementation of the minstrel rate control algorithm (Duy Nguyen for gsoc)
    • AthstatsHelper: enables the wifi device to produce periodic reports similar to the ones generated by madwifi’s athstats tool (Nicola Baldo)
    • 10MHz and 5MHz channel width supported by 802.11a model (Ramon Bauza and Kirill Andreev)
    • Channel switching support. YansWifiPhy can now switch among different channels (Ramon Bauza and Pavel Boyko)
  • IPv6 models:
    • IPv6 interface;
    • IPv6 layer;
    • IPv6 raw socket;
    • Static IPv6 routing;
    • ICMPv6 layer;
    • Some ICMPv6 error messages (destination unreachable, …);
    • Neighbor Discovery Protocol (NS/NA, RS/RA, redirection);
    • Ping6 application (send Echo request);
    • Radvd application (send RA);
    • Examples (ping6, simple-routing-ping6, radvd, radvd-two-prefix, icmpv6-redirect).
  • Wireless Mesh Networking models:
    • General multi-interface mesh stack infrastructure (devices/mesh module).
    • IEEE 802.11s (Draft 3.0) model including Peering Management Protocol and HWMP.
    • Forwarding Layer for Meshing (FLAME) protocol.
  • Nix-vector routing:
    • Ipv4NixVectorHelper
    • Examples (nix-simple, nms-p2p-nix)
  • New Test Framework
    • Use test.py instead of ./waf check or ./waf –regression
    • Previous unit tests have been ported to new framework.
    • Examples are tested for run-ability.
  • A new Flow Monitor module
    • To very easily measure flow metrics in a simulation
    • No need to use trace callbacks or parsing trace files

Known issues

ns-3.6 build is known to fail on the following platforms:

  • gcc 3.3 and earlier
  • optimized builds on gcc 3.4.4 and 3.4.5
  • optimized builds on linux x86 gcc 4.0.x