Introduction to the netWorks Application

Application Content

The netWorks application is a SAS application for modeling and simulating electronic information networks. The netWorks application functions as two separate tools -one for modeling connection-oriented networks and the other for connectionless networks. The connection-oriented subsystem focuses on telecommunication networks and is referred to as the Telecom Environment of the netWorks application. Generic equipment models are provided for common telecom equipment including models for telsets, switching systems, transmission facilities, and so forth. You create a picture of the network you want to investigate using these models (or you can create your own models) and then invoke netWorks simulation routines to generate traffic over your model network. Figure 1.1 shows a sample telecom network model representing links among three cities.

Figure 1.1: Sample Telecom Network Model

This network model uses three types of equipment models -telsets, digital switching systems, and digital transmission facilities. You can modify the telset models so that they represent banks of telephone sets and then have them generate simulated calls over your model network. Using this network model, you could investigate equipment capacity issues among these cities or the effect of changing traffic patterns on network performance. You could also simulate the effects of replacing or upgrading your switching systems or transmission facilities.

The connectionless subsystem of the netWorks application focuses on computer networks, particularly local area networks (LANs). The LAN subsystem provides models of equipment commonly found in computer networks along with their associated communication protocols. You construct a model LAN network as you would a model telecom network; however, you must also ensure that the equipment models are configured with the appropriate communication protocols. A sample LAN network model is depicted in Figure 1.2.

Figure 1.2: Sample LAN Model

Using this network model, you could generate (data packet) traffic between the workstation and the server models (or between workstation models only) and measure the packet delays between devices. You could also change traffic patterns, routing protocols, or router characteristics and note the impact these changes have on your model network's performance.

You should note that, although the netWorks application does not put any restrictions on connecting equipment models (that is, there is nothing to prevent you from connecting equipment models in a meaningless manner), you would undoubtedly generate some (obscure) error message upon invoking the simulation functions on an improperly connected network model. The netWorks application assumes that you have a good familiarity with networking technology when you use it.

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