Network Systems and Technologies, CE00731-M

Staffordshire University, UK

Network Simulation using OPNET

Table of contents

1 Note on Plagiarism .....................................................................................................................1

2 Module learning outcomes for this Assignment ......................................................................1

3 Assignment Details/Requirements............................................................................................1

4 Assessment criteria ....................................................................................................................2

4.1 Component A: Tutorial problems ........................................................................................2
4.2 Component B: Design and performance problems..............................................................2

5 Component A: Tutorial problems – 50% ................................................................................2

5.1 Tutorial 1 problems..............................................................................................................2
5.2 Tutorial 2 problems..............................................................................................................3
5.3 Tutorial 3 problems..............................................................................................................4
5.4 Tutorial 4 problems..............................................................................................................4
5.5 Tutorial 5 problems..............................................................................................................4

6 Component B: Design and performance problems – 50%.....................................................4

6.1 The current network .............................................................................................................6
6.2 The improved network..........................................................................................................6
6.3 Questions on component B...................................................................................................8

1 Note on Plagiarism
This work must be in your own words and properly referenced. You are referred to the University’s
regulations on plagiarism. Reports will be submitted to the Turnitin system to detect plagiarism.
Both the hardcopy and softcopy have to be submitted.

2 Module learning outcomes for this Assignment

• Demonstrate an advanced understanding of how the basic networking components work and
how they can be put together to implement an operational system.
• Demonstrate an in-depth working knowledge of layered protocols, standards, hardware and
software components.
• Demonstrate an understanding of the LAN and WAN technology, architecture and have the
knowledge required to select and to deploy and use internetworking tools and technology in
multiprotocol environments.

3 Assignment Details/Requirements
• Assignment weighting: 66%.
• Assignment submission deadline: 03 Dec 2010

Mohammad S. Hasan Page 1 of 8

 Network Systems and Technologies, CE00731-M
Staffordshire University, UK

• Every page must be numbered and must bear the student’s ID number or university
username or e-mail address.
• Pages must be secure. Margins must be sufficiently wide to allow the work to be read easily.
• It is important to give reasons for what you write. Explanation carries 50% weight of the
question. For example, for the question “Show and explain global server load” with weight
4%, 2% is allocated for the OPNET graph and 2% for your explanation.

4 Assessment criteria
4.1 Component A: Tutorial problems
Range Grade
>= 70% Distinction
60-69% Merit
50-59% Pass

4.2 Component B: Design and performance problems

• To gain a ‘pass’ grade, your network model should be accurate and authentic.
• To gain a ‘merit’ grade, in addition to satisfying the conditions for a pass, you will have to
explore ways of increasing the performance of the network (e.g. different network
infrastructure, experiments with configuring TCP/IP protocols etc.) and give your
conclusions about what changes would work best.
• To gain a ‘distinction’ grade, in addition to satisfying the conditions for a merit, you will
have to give high-quality evidence (e.g. screenshots, statistics from the simulations etc.)
from your OPNET simulations to support your conclusions.

5 Component A: Tutorial problems – 50%

Your answers to the questions of each OPNET Tutorial 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.

5.1 Tutorial 1 problems

Question Tutorial Question or problem Marks

#
1. 1 For both “first_floor” and “expansion” scenarios, collect the 4%
individual statistics “node 31 (server) => Ethernet => Load
(packets/sec)”. Show, compare and explain your results of “node
31 (server) => Ethernet => Load (packets/sec)” for both
“first_floor” and “expansion” scenarios. Note that you will have to
run simulation for both scenarios to collect “Load (packets/sec)”.
You can take help from Figure 8 and Figure 9 to re-run both
scenarios for this new statistic.
2. 1 For both “first_floor” and “expansion” scenarios, collect the global 4%
statistics => DB Query => Response Time (sec). Show, compare
and explain your results of this statistic for both “first_floor” and
“expansion” scenarios. Remember that after selecting the statistics,
you will have to re-run the simulation for both scenarios.
3. 1 Duplicate the “expansion” scenario and name it “expansion_new”. 4%
Then add a “3C_SSII_1100_3300_4s_ae52_e48_ge3” switch and
six “Sm_Int_wkstn” workstations as shown in Figure 10. Connect

Mohammad S. Hasan Page 2 of 8

 Network Systems and Technologies, CE00731-M
Staffordshire University, UK

the workstations to the new switch using the “10BaseT” cable.

Finally connect the new switch to the “Cisco 2514” router. After
connecting the switch to the router, you will be prompted two
dialog boxes as shown in Figure 11(a) and Figure 11(b). Just click
“OK” in both cases. Notice that the colour of the “Cisco 2514”
router has changed to reflect this change which is shown in Figure
10 as well. Run the simulation for “expansion_new” scenario. Find
out the “Elapsed Time” to execute the 0.5 hour or 30 min
simulation.
4. 1 For the scenario shown in Figure 10, collect the individual 4%
statistics “node 31 (server) => Ethernet => Load (packets/sec)” for
all three scenarios – “first_floor”, “expansion” and
“expansion_new”. For your convenience, the “As Is” plot is shown
in “Overlaid Statistics” view in Figure 12. Generate, show and
explain the “time_average” view of the statistics. You can take
help from Figure 6 and Figure 7 to refresh your knowledge of “As
Is”, “time_average” plotting in “Overlaid Statistics” view.
5. 1 Complete the following table. If you are running the same three 4%
scenarios on a PC with higher specification e.g. newer CPU and
higher clock rate, more RAM etc. what changes do you expect in
“Elapsed time”?

5.2 Tutorial 2 problems

Question Tutorial Question or problem Marks

#
6. 2 Assuming that the theoretical capacity of the hub is 10 Mbps 4%
(10,000,000 bps) and packet size of all 12 nodes is 500 bytes,
calculate the inter-arrival time of packets to produce a total of 10
Mbps traffic from all 12 nodes. Show your calculation. You can
take help from (1), (2) and explanation of Figure 8. Theoretically,
this inter-arrival time should NOT produce any collision and
should be able to deliver the total generated traffic to the
destinations.
7. 2 Verify your theoretical calculation using simulation. Duplicate the 4%
“hub” scenario and name it “hub_low_traffic”. Select all the nodes
and apply the values to the “(Packet Generation Argument) Table”
given in Table 5. For your convenience, the semi-complete dialog
box of “(Packet Generation Argument) Table” is shown in Figure
22. Enter your theoretical value here to complete it. You can take
help from Figure 7 and Figure 8 to complete Figure 22. Now show
and explain the following statistics.
a. “Global Statistics” => “Traffic Source” => “Traffic Sent
(bits/sec)”
b. “Global Statistics” => “Traffic Sink” => “Traffic Received
(bits/sec)”
c. “Object Statistics” => “Office Network” => “hub” =>
“Ethernet” => “Collision Count”
8. 2 Run the “hub_low_traffic” scenario for 2 minute with different 4%
inter-arrival time values and complete Table 6.

Mohammad S. Hasan Page 3 of 8

 Network Systems and Technologies, CE00731-M
Staffordshire University, UK

5.3 Tutorial 3 problems

Question Tutorial Question or problem Marks
#
9. 3 Explain the Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision 3%
Detection (CSMA/CD) Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol
and packet collisions with suitable diagrams.
10. 3 The scenarios and results that you generated are listed in Table 4. 3%
Notice that your maximum collision counts were 200 and 1300 for
the “low_load” and “high_load” scenarios as shown in Figure 14.
Create two new scenarios “Low_load_200” and “High_load_200”
by duplicating “low_load” and “high_load” scenarios,
respectively. Then apply packet size of constant(200) as given in
Table 5. Show the collision counts graph from OPNET simulation,
complete the “Maximum Collision Count” column of Table 5. Did
the collision count increase / decrease / stay at the same value?
Explain your results.

5.4 Tutorial 4 problems

Question Tutorial Question or problem Marks
#
11. 4 Show “Global→FTP→Traffic Received (bytes/sec)” and calculate 3%
percentage of improvement.
12. 4 Activate “Email (Heavy)” service on the server. Add another 3%
profile with name “EMAIL_req” based on the “Email (Heavy)”
application to the “profile config” so that it will generate FTP
requests as well as EMAIL requests. Apply both FTP_req and
EMAIL_req profiles to all the workstations. You can take help
from Figure 7, Figure 8 and Figure 10. Run simulations for both
“current” and “improved” scenarios for 1 hour. Show
“time_average” statistic for the global Email download response
time and calculate percentage of improvement.

5.5 Tutorial 5 problems

Question Tutorial Question or problem Marks
#
13. 5 Show “Global→ TCP → Delay (sec)” and calculate percentage of 3%
improvement.
14. 5 Show “Global→ TCP → Retransmission” Count” and calculate 3%
percentage of improvement.

6 Component B: Design and performance problems – 50%

You work as the network administrator in a company and the company has two hub-based Local
Area Networks (LANs) which are connected by two routers. The current topology is shown in
Figure 1 and the descriptions of the components are given in Table 1. You have modelled the

Mohammad S. Hasan Page 4 of 8

 Network Systems and Technologies, CE00731-M
Staffordshire University, UK

current topology very carefully so that you can easily apply improvements to it. You are going to
improve the following parameters.
• HTTP page response time
• DB query response time

Figure 1: Current network topology.

Table 1: Description of the components.

Item Model description Object X Y
Pallet location location
Company area 10 Kilometre x 10 Kilometre N/A N/A N/A
Workstations Ethernet_wkstn Ethernet - -
Hub (site_A) ethernet16_hub Ethernet 3.0 7.0
Hub (site_B) ethernet16_hub Ethernet 7.0 3.0
Server located at site Ethernet_server Ethernet 9.0 3.0
B
Site_A_router Ethernet2_slip8_gtwy Router 5.0 6.5
Site_B_router Ethernet2_slip8_gtwy Router 5.0 3.5
Router to router T1 link to connect site_A_router to Links N/A N/A
connection site_B_router
Other links 10BaseT Links N/A N/A
Application Config Configured with default applications Ethernet N/A N/A
Profile Config Configured to generate HTTP or Web Ethernet N/A N/A
(Heavy) and Database Access (Heavy)
requests

Mohammad S. Hasan Page 5 of 8

 Network Systems and Technologies, CE00731-M
Staffordshire University, UK

6.1 The current network

1. You start a project with area of 10 Kilometre x 10 Kilometre and name the scenario “current”.
2. You have modelled the LANs in OPNET using the “Ethernet” technology and “Rapid
Configuration” from the “Topology” menu as shown in Figure 2(a) and Figure 2(b).

(a) (b)
Figure 2: The “Rapid Configuration” dialog for site_A and site_B LANs.

3. You introduce the server from the “Ethernet” object pallet and connect it to the site_B hub with
a 10BaseT cable.
4. You bring site_A_router and site_B_router from the “router” object pallet and set the locations
to (5.0, 6.5) and (5.0, 3.5), respectively. These are “ethernet2_slip8_gtwy” routers. Then you
connect the routers to the corresponding hubs with 10BaseT cables.
5. You connect site_A_router to site_B_router by a “T1” link from the object “link” object pallet.
6. You configure the “application config” with the default applications.
7. All the workstations (Ethernet_wkstn) are generating requests based Web browsing (heavy
HTTP1.1) and Database Access (Heavy) applications.
8. You select appropriate statistics to collect Global HTTP page response time and DB query
response time.

6.2 The improved network

9. First of all, you duplicate the current scenario and name it “proposed”.
10. You realise that the hub can be easily replaced by a switch. The company has given you two
choices - CISCO 1900 and CISCO 2940 as shown in Figure 3. You have picked ONLY one
type of switch to replace both the hubs. However, while replacing the hubs by switches, you
make sure that the location i.e. (x, y) location of the device is the same.

Mohammad S. Hasan Page 6 of 8

 Network Systems and Technologies, CE00731-M
Staffordshire University, UK

Figure 3: The choices for the switch.

11. You also decide to replace the routers with better ones. You were given two choices by the
company – CISCO 2501 and CISCO 2620 as shown in Figure 4. Again you have picked ONLY
one type of router to replace both routers. However, you ensure that the (x, y) location of the
routers were NOT changed at all.

Figure 4: The choices for the routers.

12. You replace all the 10BaseT cables with 100BaseT cables. The improved network is shown in
Figure 5. The model numbers of the switches and routers are NOT shown intentionally.

Mohammad S. Hasan Page 7 of 8

 Network Systems and Technologies, CE00731-M
Staffordshire University, UK

However, if you have chosen CISO 2620, then the router model will NOT show in the
workspace anyway.

Figure 5: The improved network.

6.3 Questions on component B

13. Simulate the “current” and “proposed” scenarios for 1 hour and answer the following questions.

Question Question or Statistic to find Marks

#
1. Explain “HTTP page response time” and “DB query response time”. 5%
2. Justify your choice for switch between CISCO 1900 and CISCO 2948. 7.5%
3. Justify your choice for router between CISCO 2501 and CISCO 2620. 7.5%
4. Show and compare the “time_average” HTTP page response time” for 15%
“current” and “proposed” scenarios in “Overlaid Statistics” view. Also
calculate percentage improvement.
5. Show and compare the “time_average” DB query response time” for 15%
“current” and “proposed” scenarios in “Overlaid Statistics” view. Also
calculate percentage improvement.

Mohammad S. Hasan Page 8 of 8