Installation of NS2 on Linux System

1. Introduction

NS2, or Network Simulator 2, is an open-source network simulation software widely used for research and educational purposes. It allows users to simulate and analyze the performance of network protocols and applications.

In this article, we will explain how to install NS2 on a Linux system. We assume that you have a basic understanding of Linux commands and have administrative privileges on your system.

2. System Requirements

Before installing NS2, you need to make sure that your system meets the following requirements:

2.1 Operating System

Your system should be running a Linux distribution. NS2 is compatible with most Linux distributions, including Ubuntu, Fedora, and CentOS.

2.2 Software Dependencies

NS2 requires several software packages to be installed on your system. These packages include:

gcc/g++ compiler

tcl/tk libraries

otcl libraries

LibX11 libraries

You can install these packages using the package manager provided by your Linux distribution. For example, on Ubuntu, you can use the apt package manager:

sudo apt-get install build-essential

sudo apt-get install tcl-dev tk-dev
sudo apt-get install libotcl1 libotcl-dev
sudo apt-get install libx11-dev

3. Downloading NS2

To install NS2, you first need to download the source code from the official NS2 website. Open your web browser and navigate to the NS2 downloads page (http://www.isi.edu/nsnam/ns/).

Download the latest stable release of NS2 by clicking on the download link. Once the download is complete, extract the contents of the package to a directory of your choice.

tar xzvf ns-allinone-2.xx.tar.gz

4. Compiling NS2

Now that you have downloaded the NS2 source code, you can compile it to generate the executable files. Open a terminal and navigate to the directory where you extracted the NS2 package.

Execute the following commands to configure and compile NS2:

cd ns-allinone-2.xx

./configure
make
sudo make install

5. Setting Environment Variables

After the compilation process is complete, you need to set the environment variables to make NS2 accessible from any directory.

Open the ~/.bashrc file in a text editor and add the following lines at the end:

export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/ns2/bin

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/usr/local/ns2/lib

Save the file and close the text editor. Then, execute the following command to update the environment variables:

source ~/.bashrc

6. Verifying the Installation

To verify that NS2 has been successfully installed, open a terminal and type the following command:

ns

If NS2 starts without any errors and displays the NS2 command prompt, then the installation was successful.

7. Conclusion

In this article, we discussed the installation of NS2 on a Linux system. We covered the system requirements, downloading the source code, compiling NS2, setting environment variables, and verifying the installation.

NS2 is a powerful tool for network simulation and analysis, and now you have it installed on your Linux system. You can explore the various features and capabilities of NS2 to conduct network-related research or educational activities.