OPNET Modeler 8.

1 Release Notes
These release notes provide an overview of the differences between OPNET Modeler release 8.1 and the previous release. If you are upgrading from a previous release, you should review this document.

Contents
1 1.1 2 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 3 4 5 5.1 5.2 6 7 8 9 9.1 9.2 9.3 10 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.6 10.7 10.8 10.9 10.10 10.11 10.12 8.1 Release Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Flow Analysis Enhancements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Configuring Routing Protocols on Loopback Interfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Converting Link Utilizations to Traffic Flows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Flow Analysis Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Permission Errors When Launching IP Reports on Windows 2000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Router Configuration Import Enhancements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 NetDoctor Enhancements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 ACE Enhancements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 New Capabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Expanded Tutorials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Statistic Reporting Enhancements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Some IS-IS Support Temporarily Removed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 ERP Network Assessment Module (ENAM) Unsupported . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 KP Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 op_prg_list KPs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 op_pk KPs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 op_stat_obj_reg() . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Model Library Enhancements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 ATM Enhancements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 PNNI Enhancements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Application Model Enhancements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 TCP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 IP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Hybrid Simulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 OSPF. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 BGP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 EIGRP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 DOCSIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Wireless LAN (WLAN) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 MPLS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

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11 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 11.6 11.7 11.8

Model Behavior Changes in 8.1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . For Models Using BGP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . For Models Using EIGRP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . For Models Using IP Multicasting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . For Models Using TCP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . For Models Using ATM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . For Models Using PNNI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . For Custom Applications Using the ACE Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . For Models Using Hybrid Simulation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Part number: Version:

D00214 2

2002 by OPNET Technologies, Inc. All rights reserved. This information is subject to all restrictions set forth in the Modeler documentation.

OPNET Modeler Release Notes

Release 8.1

8.1 Release Description

Modeler version 8.1 is a significant new release, offering substantial new functionality, including: Major enhancements to the FlowAnalysis module for both IP and ATM, including: new supported protocols extensive reports ability to convert utilizations to trafc ows

Major enhancements to the MVI module in the area of Cisco router configuration import MVI module support for importing traffic flows from NetScout nGenius New standard rules provided with the NetDoctor module Significant new features in the ACE module for predicting application performance, plus new tutorials and usage examples Enhancements to the following models: ATM, PNNI, Applications, TCP, IP, Hybrid Simulation, BGP, EIGRP, DOCSIS, MPLS, OSPF, Wireless LAN, and NetDoctor Rules

This release also incorporates fixes for some reported software problems in the preceding release.

1.1

System Requirements
Be sure to check the latest system requirements on the OPNET website, at: http://www.opnet.com/support

Flow Analysis Enhancements

The Flow Analysis module now supports expanded analyses of IP and ATM networks. Routing flow analyses and failure impact analyses model the behavior of the following protocols. Multiprotocol networks are supported, as is PNNI-to-VNN interworking. Note that the IP and ATM Flow Analysis engines are separate, so combined IP/ATM routing is not supported in Flow Analysis. It is, however, supported in discrete event simulation.

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OPNET Modeler Release Notes

Flow Analysis Supported Protocols

Network Technology IP Protocols BGP EIGRP IGRP IP routing OSPF RIP Distance vector PNNI/VNN

ATM

In addition to expanded protocol support, the Flow Analysis module has the following new capabilities: IP Report Managerdynamically creates approximately 100 different reports at user request IP flow analysisperforms routing flow analysis and delay analysis, and computes statistics. Problems that occur are reported in a separate IP flow analysis error log. ATM flow analysisincludes the following enhancements: VNN modeling PNNI and VNN inter-working SVC modeling Reportingalso reports on unroutable VCs and available bandwidth Demand sequencing Per-node Customizable Call Admission Control (CAC) Point-to-Multipoint VCs

For a complete description of these capabilities, refer to the Flow Analysis User Guide.

2.1

Conguring Routing Protocols on Loopback Interfaces

IP Flow Analysis is unable to compute a route for a conversation pair if the loopback interface on the source or destination node is not reachable. Similarly, route browsing will fail in IP flow analysis if the loopback interface on one of the selected nodes is not reachable. The loopback interface may be unreachable because it does not have routing protocols configured on it. OPNET provides a command (Protocols IP Configure Routing Protocols on Loopback Interfaces) to help you configure IP routing protocols on loopback interfaces. This command performs a one-time configuration of the loopback interface. If you modify the configuration of one or more devices in OPNET prior to running an IP flow analysis, you may need to execute this command again. Alternatively, you can configure IP Flow Analysis to

OPNET Modeler Release Notes

Release 8.1

automatically execute this command while preparing to run the analysis. Refer to section IP.4 Configuring and Running a Flow Analysis (procedure step 4) in the Flow Analysis User Guide for details.

2.2

Converting Link Utilizations to Trafc Flows

The Flow Analysis module allows you to convert the link utilizations in a network to traffic flows. This can be useful because traffic flows, unlike link utilizations, respond to events during a simulation and thus can be rerouted by the routing protocols in use. To use this feature, choose Traffic Convert Link Utilizations to Flows. For more details, refer to the OPNET 8.1 New Features document.

2.3

Flow Analysis Limitations

The following software problems (SPRs) have been reported in the 8.1 release of Flow Analysis and are currently being investigated.

Known Flow Analysis Protocol Limitations

SPR 19400 19401 20121 Description IGRP works on CIDR networks, although it doesnt support CIDR RIPv1 works on CIDR networks, although it doesnt support CIDR Flow Analysis does not support BGP confederations

2.4

Permission Errors When Launching IP Reports on Windows 2000

If you are running OPNET on Windows 2000 from an account without administrator privileges, you may notice errors when attempting to launch the IP Report Manager. This happens because Windows 2000 prevents OPNET from writing to its system directory for non-administrator users. If you installed OPNET on a Windows 2000 machine and will be using it from an account without administrator privileges, you must change file access permissions for the following directories:
<opnet_dir>/8.1.A/sys/reports <opnet_dir>/8.1.A/sys/lib

To change permissions

1) Navigate to <opnet_dir>/8.1.A/sys. 2) Right-click on the directory name (reports or lib) and select Properties.

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OPNET Modeler Release Notes

3) Select the Security tab. 4) Click on the Users group in the name table. 5) Click on the Allow column for the Full Control entry in the Permissions table. 6) Click on Apply.

Router Conguration Import Enhancements

RCI now imports the following information: BGP community lists and route maps EIGRP route maps and new model attributes Standard and extended access lists Prefix lists Per-interface bandwidth and delay parameters (interface metrics) Policy-based routing Packet filters on interfaces EtherChannel

In addition, RCIs import of redistribution attributes has been enhanced and a logging mechanism (controlled by the router_import_logging preference) for skipped commands and other import information has been added.

OPNET Modeler Release Notes

Release 8.1

NetDoctor Enhancements
The following standard rules have been added to the NetDoctor module.

New Standard NetDoctor Rules

Rule Suite EIGRP Routing Rules Duplicate Router ID within AS Explicit Neighbor Not In Same AS Explicit Neighbor Not Peer Explicit Neighbor Without Passive Interface Inappropriate Variance Value Inconsistent Active Timer within AS Invalid Interface For Explicit Neighbor Invalid Route Filter in AS Conguration Invalid Route Filter on Interface Invalid Route Map Name Mismatched Metric Coefcients Not Enough Bandwidth Available to EIGRP Invalid AS Path List Invalid Prex List Invalid Update Source for Neighbor No Routing Protocol On Interface Peers With Inconsistent Routing Protocols Inconsistent Circuit Type Inconsistent Reference Bandwidth Reference Bandwidth Too Low Ineffective ACL Ineffective Prex List Invalid ACL for Packet Filter Invalid Route Map for Policy Routing Ineffective Statement in Route Map Loopback Not Reachable Duplicate AS Denition for EIGRP

BGP Routing

IP Routing

IS-IS Routing OSPF Routing

Route Map and ACLs

Simulation Requirements

Simulation Requirements is a new category that includes rules that are required for a Discrete Event Simulation or Flow Analysis, but may not be required for a valid real-world scenario. If a rule in this category is not followed, your simulation may generate errors even though your model represents a valid network configuration.

ACE Enhancements
The Application Characterization Environment (ACE) module now has several new capabilities and expanded documentation.

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OPNET Modeler Release Notes

5.1

New Capabilities
Several significant capabilities have been added to the ACE module. Treeview window has been reorganized and now includes timeline graphics. QuickPredict lets you vary several network parameters (such as bandwidth and latency) and immediately see what effect the change has on application performance. QuickRecode lets you investigate how changes to an application will affect its performance. ACE Model Wizard helps you configure applications when importing an ACE trace file into a new or existing network model.

The first three features are described in the OPNET 8.1 New Features document, accessible by choosing Help Whats New in 8.1. The Model Wizard is described in the Reference chapter of the ACE User Guide.

5.2

Expanded Tutorials
The two ACE tutorials previously found in the ACE User Guide have been removed. They are replaced by four new ACE tutorials and five examples of typical applications of ACE. To view the new tutorials and examples, choose Help Online tutorial.

Statistic Reporting Enhancements

You can now visualize throughput and utilization statistics directly in the Project Editor workspace. Previously, this functionality was available only after a flow analysis, but is now also available after a discrete event simulation. To use this new feature, choose the Results Visualize Link Statistics menu option.

Some IS-IS Support Temporarily Removed

Release 8.0.C PL7 introduced support for processing IS-IS protocol configuration as part of the MVI modules router configuration import. Flow Analysis also supported IS-IS routing. Because of significant changes in the routing protocol engine, this support has temporarily been removed, but it will be restored in an upcoming patch or release. Meanwhile, release 8.1 does support running NetDoctor-based rules and validation reports on network topologies that use IS-IS.

ERP Network Assessment Module (ENAM) Unsupported

Beginning with this release, ENAM has been dropped as a product. This has been done because its capabilities have been superseded by standard product and model features.

OPNET Modeler Release Notes

Release 8.1

KP Changes
Some changes to Kernel Procedures have been made.

9.1

op_prg_list KPs
KPs in the op_prg_list family are not thread-safe, except for op_prg_list_create(). This was reported incorrectly in earlier versions of the documentation. Because there is no built-in mutex, users are responsible for managing serialization of these KPs when needed.

9.2

op_pk KPs
Packet size is now handled as a double (it was formerly treated as integer). As a result, the following arguments and return values are now doubles:
op_pk_id() return value op_pk_total_size_get() return value op_pk_total_size_set() total_size argument op_pk_bulk_size_get() return value op_pk_bulk_size_set() bulk_size argument

Also, op_pk_fd_get() no longer generates a recoverable error if the field index is out-ofrange for the packet. This has been removed for efficiency purposes.

9.3

op_stat_obj_reg()
The obj_id argument of this KP is given as int in the documentation. It should be Objid.

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Model Library Enhancements

Details about model features can be found in the model descriptions. For the latest documentation, follow the Model Usage Guides link in the Support Center (http://www.opnet.com/support).

10.1

ATM Enhancements
The ATM model now includes the following features for discrete event simulation. Hard PVx connectionsThese can be specified using the GUI or through a GDF file. PVx connections can be made up of both hard and soft PVxs, as long as the end-to-end connection is either a permanent virtual path or a permanent virtual connection.

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Preferred routingYou can specify preferred routes for an SPVx that are loosely pinned or explicitly defined at each hop. VPI 0/1 support for data connections. Friendly names for switch portsThis feature allows you to specify names for ports, which provides easy-to-use reports, statistics, and attribute references. Improved route reportsEnhanced route reports allow you to collect the values of the input and output ports, VPIs, and VCIs. IP traffic characteristicsNew attributes allow you to map IP traffic flows to different ATM QoS classes. Automatic SVC setup for IP background trafficConversation pairs between IP container nodes (ATM workstations or routers) set up an SVC automatically if there is no hard or soft PVC between them. Visualize PVC routesAfter running a simulation, you can view the routes taken by ATM PVCs set up in the network.

New example scenarios in the ATM example project demonstrate these features.

10.2

PNNI Enhancements
The PNNI model now supports the following features for discrete event simulation. Explicit discrete event simulation for flat and hierarchical topologies. You can now run a simulation using one of two modes of PNNI routing: Fast mode or Explicit mode. Topology database exportIn Explicit mode for PNNI, the model can be configured to export the topology database to a log message at various times during the simulation. Load balancing over equal-cost paths. Crankback for Fast mode and Explicit mode. Node and link aggregation for Fast mode and Explicit mode. Static Peer Group Leader election for Fast mode PNNI Routing. Dynamic Peer Group Leader election for Explicit mode PNNI Routing. Configurable Complex Node parameters. A Hello Stop Time efficiency mode that allows you to stop Hello message exchange after the network has stabilized, resulting in shorter simulation run times. Statistics on routing table updates are available. These include statistics on routing table size and on the time between updates.

New scenarios in the PNNI standard project demonstrate these features.

10.3

Application Model Enhancements

The application models now support the following features.

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Background traffic modeling for Voice and Video applications. By allowing you to model some or all of the traffic generated by voice and video applications as background traffic instead of explicit traffic, this feature can significantly reduce simulation run times. A new API provides an open interface for dynamically creating background traffic flows from application layers running over IP. DiffServ Code Point (DSCP) tagging for all application traffic ACE Model WizardThis feature allows you to easily configure applications when importing ACE trace files into a new or existing network model. For additional information about this feature, refer to the ACE User Guide. Additional server model statistics. Many of the server model statistics can now be collected on a per-job basis and not only on a per-server basis. Direct delivery protocol (DDP) for TPAL to TPAL communication in custom application traffic. This feature shortens simulation execution in custom applications and is most useful when you are not interested in studying network delays. DDP eliminates packet flow through the entire protocol stack by delivering packets from the TPAL module on the sending node directly to the TPAL module on the receiving node. To use this feature, use Direct Delivery as the transport protocol on the sending nodes, receiving nodes, and in the custom application definition.

10.4

TCP
The TCP model now supports the following features for discrete event simulation. ECN ECN is supported at TCP and IP. IP sets ECN bits using RED recommendations. (RFC-3168) New-RenoThis TCP flavor is available as one of the pre-configured settings for the TCP Parameters attribute. (RFC-2582) Statistic annotationsAnnotations now make the per-connection statistics easier to identify when viewing results.

10.5

IP
The IP model now supports the following features for discrete event simulation. Simplified configuration proceduresSeveral new menu operations make it easier to configure parameters on multiple nodes at once. These parameters include routing protocols for loopback interfaces, load balancing option, route table export, and conversation pair traffic. Routing protocol visualizationYou can view the routing protocols configured in the network in the project editor workspace. This eliminates the need to drill down into several compound attributes just to see which protocols are configured on an interface. To use this feature, select the Protocols IP Visualize Routing Domains menu operation. Route mapsRoute maps can be configured with multiple terms and are to configure route redistribution for EIGRP and BGP. BGP also uses route maps to configure routing policies. Access Control Lists (ACLs)ACLs are used in route filtering for EIGRP and BGP, and as match settings for route maps.
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Ability to set different administrative weights for internal EIGRP routes and external EIGRP routes. Default queue specification Low Latency Queue (LLQ) Route reporting for background traffic. This feature also displays incomplete traffic flows, providing reasons for unroutability. Additional routing table statistics, including statistics for size, additions, and deletions Additional queuing schemes for IP quality of service: MWRR, MDRR, and DWRR Two items on the Protocols IP menu have been renamed: Congure Dynamic Routing Protocols is now Congure Routing Protocols Display Routes is now Display Routes for Congured Flows

10.6

Hybrid Simulation
The hybrid simulation model has been enhanced to support the following features. DiffServ Code Points (DSCP) for characterizing background traffic Configurable ToS/DSCP, packet size and inter-arrival time distributions, and tracer packet frequency for each traffic conversation pair Traffic shapingThis feature allows you to scale conversation pair traffic in the network to conform to the capacity of link data rates in the network. Easier creation of traffic conversation flows. A one-step process allows you to create a full-mesh of traffic conversation pairs for a set of nodes in the network.

10.7

OSPF
The OSPF model suite now supports the following features for discrete event simulation. Point-to-Multipoint interface type Option of Periodic or LSA-driven methods to determine when routing table calculations are performed OSPF area information is now displayed in tool tips; this replaces the legend subnet used previously. Also, you can now remove the area visualization by choosing Protocols OSPF Clear Area Visualization.

10.8

BGP
The Protocols BGP menu now includes a Configure IBGP Peers item. This operation configures the selected nodes as internal BGP neighbors, using the IP addresses of the routers loopback interfaces. If not already set, IP addresses are first auto-assigned.

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10.9

EIGRP
The EIGRP model suite now supports the following features for discrete event simulation. Configurable Split Horizon on a per-interface basis Passive interfaces Route filters Balanced and Minimum Traffic Share modes for equal and unequal cost load balancing Configurable metric parameters (K1 through K5) Per-interface configuration for bandwidth, delay, load, and reliability New statistic reports the size of the routing table Ability to print information about packet contents in debugging

See the EIGRP Model Description for additional information.

10.10 DOCSIS
The DOCSIS model suite now supports the following features for discrete event simulation. Multiple upstream and downstream channels Payload Header Suppression (PHS)

See the DOCSIS Model Description for additional information.

10.11 Wireless LAN (WLAN)

The WLAN model suite now supports the following features for discrete event simulation. A new signal power threshold attribute controls which packets are accepted by the receiver. Packets with received signal power below the threshold do not make the receiver busy and the receiver treats such packets as noise packets. This new attribute allows you to model clear channel assessment approach in your WLAN network model. Enhanced physical layer modeling, including implementation of PLCP preamble and PLCP header overheads Packets traveling more than 300m in the air between two WLAN nodes of the same BSS, a standard-imposed limit, are no longer dropped by the model. Instead, networks that do not comply with the standards limit may experience some MAC algorithm performance degradation. This feature enables spatial reuse which may result with better overall performance for some network configurations

10.12 MPLS
The MPLS model suite now supports Fast-Reroute in discrete event simulation.
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11

Model Behavior Changes in 8.1

Some of the enhancements described above will cause your model to behave differently than they did in the 8.0.C release. You are likely to notice these changes if you use default settings in certain modelsas we model new features, we sometimes change the default model behavior to better reflect common configurations or standard behavior. If you wish, you can configure your models to use the behavior of the 8.0.C models by directly controlling appropriate attributes and overriding defaults. In addition, like all large software packages, our model libraries contain errors, and a number of these errors have been fixed in Release 8.1. Depending on which protocols your network models use, these corrections may also result in behavioral changes for your simulations. However, we believe that these changes represent more accurate simulation of the protocols and provide you with better results. The following sections describe model behavior changes in the 8.1 model release.

11.1

For Models Using BGP

Network Reachability

When inserting a route into BGP using the Network Reachability Information attribute, BGP sets the routes MED value to the IGP metric. Previously, the IGP metric did not affect MED values. This meant that two routes to the same network destination were equally preferred routes when advertised to EBGP neighbors. You can reproduce the 8.0.C behavior by using route maps to configure the MED value to 0 when these routes are advertised to EBGP neighbors.
Routing Policies

The model now includes an implicit Deny statement in routing policies. This means that a route that matches none of the route maps is rejected. Previously, the model accepted these routesthe only routes rejected were those that matched a route map corresponding to a Deny action. You can reproduce the 8.0.C behavior by adding a route map that accepts all routes to the end of the Routing Policies tables. Such a route map would have its Match Info and Set Info attributes set to None and its Action attribute set to Permit.

11.2

For Models Using EIGRP

Load Balancing

The default behavior for load balancing over equal cost routes is destination-based, which results in fewer out-of-order packets and reduced delay. Previously, the default behavior used packet-based load balancing, which allowed packets from the same application going to the same destination to use different routes. You can reproduce the 8.0.C behavior by setting the IP Routing Parameters Load Balancing attribute to Packet-Based. A new Protocols menu operation provides a quick way of doing this for multiple routers. To use this feature, select the Protocols IP Configure Load Balancing menu option.
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11.3

For Models Using IP Multicasting

The default model behavior allows a rendez-vous point (RP) to initiate a switch to a shortest path tree (SPT) in response to a register message from the senders first hop router. This may produce different simulation results than those obtained in prior releases. To restore the behavior of the 8.0.C model, set the PIM-SM Interval attribute and the PIM-SM Source Threshold attribute to Infinity. The model now automatically prunes RP trees when a router in the network is directly attached to a source and one or more receivers. This prevents unnecessary traffic between the router and the RP. Because earlier versions of the model did not prune RP trees, simulation results may differ in the 8.1 model.

11.4

For Models Using TCP

Selective Acknowledgement (SACK)

Enhancements to the SACK feature enable the model to generate less TCP overhead between nodes that send traffic (TCP requests) to each other. Model behavior is unchanged between nodes where one node sends only requests and the other node sends only responses.
Statistic Panels

The annotations used when reporting TCP statistics have changed. If you created panels in an earlier release and saved them as template panels, they will be unable to load data collected from the 8.1 TCP model. To view your results, simply re-create the analysis panels after running a simulation with the 8.1 models.

11.5

For Models Using ATM

The 8.1 ATM models do not use a cell tax attribute, which increased the amount of bandwidth reserved for a call in earlier releases. Because less bandwidth is reserved per call, the routes chosen in 8.1 may differ from those in 8.0.C. You can restore the previous behavior by modifying the reservation as indicated in the following table.

Reservation Modifications Required to Restore 8.0.C Behavior

QoS CBR rt-VBR nrt-VBR ABR 8.0.C Value PCR SCR SCR MCR 8.1 Value Required For 8.0.C Results PCR * (53/48) SCR * (53/48) SCR * (53/48) MCR * (53/48)

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11.6

For Models Using PNNI

Conguring the network to use PNNI

As in earlier releases, the ATM Dynamic Routing Protocol simulation attribute is still used to configure your ATM network model to use PNNI routing. However, the PNNI value for this attribute has been replaced by two new options in 8.1, Explicit PNNI and FastMode PNNI. Before running a simulation using PNNI in 8.1, you must first select one of the new PNNI options in the Configure Simulation dialog box.
Peer Group Leader Election

To support dynamic election of peer group leaders, the Peer Group Leader attribute has been replaced by the Peer Group Leader Priority attribute. If a network configured in an earlier model release contains hierarchies, you must reconfigure the peer group leaders to use the new attribute. Otherwise, the hierarchy is lost and the network becomes a flat-level network. To restore the hierarchy, set the Peer Group Leader Priority attribute to a positive integer for each peer group leader. This corresponds to a value of Yes for the Peer Group Leader attribute of previous releases. Unlike previous releases, which supported only static election of peer group leaders, the 8.1 model dynamically elects peer group leaders during the simulation. When a peer group leader is first elected during the simulation, the node with the highest peer group leader priority is elected leader. If that node fails, a new leader is elected for the group.
Complex Node Parameters

The default complex node parameters, such as administrative weight, CTD, and CDV, have changed. This may cause the 8.1 model to choose different routes for the demands. To restore the 8.0.C behavior, restore the complex node parameters to the previous defaults, as indicated in the following table.

Default Values for Complex Node Parameters

Attribute Administrative Weight Cell Transfer Delay (CTD) (sec) CBR rt-VBR nrt-VBR ABR and UBR Cell Delay Variation (CDV) (sec) CBR 1.25E-007 0.001 1.36E-007 2.61E-007 5.11E-007 0.0 0.002 0.002 0.002 0.002 Default Value in 8.0.C models 2520 Default Value in 8.1 models 10080

OPNET Modeler Release Notes

Release 8.1

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Default Values for Complex Node Parameters (Cont.)

Attribute rt-VBR nrt-VBR ABR and UBR Cell Loss Ration (CLR) CBR rt-VBR nrt-VBR ABR and UBR Maximum Cell Rate (Mbps) Available Cell Rate (Mbps) 1E-012 1E-009 1E-006 0.0 149.67 149.67 1E-008 1E-008 1E-008 1E-008 2500 2500 Default Value in 8.0.C models 2.5E-007 0.0 0.0 Default Value in 8.1 models 0.001 0.001 0.001

Statistic Panels

The annotations used when reporting PNNI statistics have changed. If you created panels in an earlier release and saved them as template panels, they will be unable to load data collected from the 8.1 PNNI model. To view your results, simply re-create the analysis panels after running a simulation with the new models.

11.7

For Custom Applications Using the ACE Model

Task Contention Mode

When you configure custom applications to use ACE, you can now take advantage of contention modeling on tier nodes. Previous models only allowed you to simulate the delay incurred by the application on a tier node in the "Contention Already Modeled" mode, such that response time was obtained from the ACE trace and did not reflect contention with other concurrently executing tasks. If you wish to obtain the earlier behavior, simply ensure that the "Task Contention Mode" attribute is set to "Contention Already Modeled".
Inter-Repetition and Start Time Offsets

The default Inter-Repetition time for applications created using the ACE wizard uses an exponential distribution instead of the constant distribution used in earlier releases. By default, the wizard configures the value of Start Time Offset to equal the value of Inter-Repetition Time. These changes reduce the likelihood of all applications starting at the same time and producing a sudden spike in network traffic. You can restore the default behavior of the model by changing the attribute values to the 8.0.C defaults, as indicated below.

Release 8.1

OPNET Modeler Release Notes

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8.0 Default Settings from the ACE Wizard

Attribute Inter-Repetition Time Start Time Offset 8.0.C Default Value constant uniform (5, 10)

11.8

For Models Using Hybrid Simulation

When conversation pair traffic exceeds link capacity, the traffic is scaled down to comply with the links data rate. If this traffic is from a single flow, the flow rate is scaled to the link data rate. If the aggregate traffic of multiple flows exceeds a links capacity (as opposed to a single flow in the previous case), each flow is scaled down proportionately according to its demand. For example, suppose there are two flows, A and B, traversing a T3 link with a data rate of 45Mbps. If Flow A is 40Mbps and Flow B is 60Mbps, then Flow A represents 40% of the aggregate traffic traversing the link and Flow B represents 60%. After the traffic has been scaled to the links date rate, the flow rates will be 40% of 45Mbps for Flow A and 60% of 45Mbps for Flow B. You can restore the behavior of earlier releases by disabling traffic shaping in the Background Traffic (BGUtil) configuration object.

OPNET Modeler Release Notes

Release 8.1