NePA TesT: Community Network Emulator

Mininet: Rapid Prototyping for Software Defined Networks

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*The best way to emulate almost any network on your laptop!*

Version 2.1.0+

### What is Mininet?

Mininet emulates a complete network of hosts, links, and switches

on a single machine.  To create a sample two-host, one-switch network,

just run:

  `sudo mn`

Mininet is useful for interactive development, testing, and demos,

especially those using OpenFlow and SDN.  OpenFlow-based network

controllers prototyped in Mininet can usually be transferred to

hardware with minimal changes for full line-rate execution.

### How does it work?

Mininet creates virtual networks using process-based virtualization

and network namespaces - features that are available in recent Linux

kernels.  In Mininet, hosts are emulated as `bash` processes running in

a network namespace, so any code that would normally run on a Linux

server (like a web server or client program) should run just fine

within a Mininet "Host".  The Mininet "Host" will have its own private

network interface and can only see its own processes.  Switches in

Mininet are software-based switches like Open vSwitch or the OpenFlow

reference switch.  Links are virtual ethernet pairs, which live in the

Linux kernel and connect our emulated switches to emulated hosts

(processes).

### Features

Mininet includes:

* A command-line launcher (`mn`) to instantiate networks.

* A handy Python API for creating networks of varying sizes and

  topologies.

* Examples (in the `examples/` directory) to help you get started.

* Full API documentation via Python `help()` docstrings, as well as

  the ability to generate PDF/HTML documentation with `make doc`.

* Parametrized topologies (`Topo` subclasses) using the Mininet

  object.  For example, a tree network may be created with the

  command:

  `mn --topo tree,depth=2,fanout=3`

* A command-line interface (`CLI` class) which provides useful

  diagnostic commands (like `iperf` and `ping`), as well as the

  ability to run a command to a node. For example,

  `mininet> h11 ifconfig -a`

  tells host h11 to run the command `ifconfig -a`

* A "cleanup" command to get rid of junk (interfaces, processes, files

  in /tmp, etc.) which might be left around by Mininet or Linux. Try

  this if things stop working!

  `mn -c`

### New features in 2.1.0+

Mininet 2.1.0+ provides a number of bug fixes as well as

several new features, including:

* Convenient access to `Mininet()` as a dict of nodes

* X11 tunneling (wireshark in Mininet hosts, finally!)

* Accurate reflection of the `Mininet()` object in the CLI

* Automatically detecting and adjusting resource limits

* Automatic cleanup on failure of the `mn` command

* Preliminary support for running OVS in user space mode

* Preliminary support (`IVSSwitch()`) for the Indigo Virtual Switch

* support for installing the OpenFlow 1.3 versions of the reference

  user switch and NOX from CPqD

* The ability to import modules from `mininet.examples`

We have provided several new examples (which can easily be

imported to provide useful functionality) including:

* Modeling separate control and data networks: `mininet.examples.controlnet`

* Connecting Mininet hosts the internet (or a LAN) using NAT: `mininet.examples.nat`

* Creating per-host custom directories using bind mounts: `mininet.examples.bind`

Note that examples contain experimental features which might

"graduate" into mainline Mininet in the future, but they should 

not be considered a stable part of the Mininet API!

### Installation

See `INSTALL` for installation instructions and details.

### Documentation

In addition to the API documentation (`make doc`), much useful

information, including a Mininet walkthrough and an introduction

to the Python API, is available on the

[Mininet Web Site](http://mininet.org).

There is also a wiki which you are encouraged to read and to

contribute to, particularly the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ.)

### Support

Mininet is community-supported. We encourage you to join the

Mininet mailing list, `mininet-discuss` at:

<https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/mininet-discuss>

### Contributing

Mininet is an open source project and is currently hosted

at <https://github.com/mininet>.  You are encouraged to download

the code, examine it, modify it, and submit bug reports, bug fixes,

feature requests, new features and other issues and pull requests.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to the project

(see CONTRIBUTORS for more info!)

Best wishes, and we look forward to seeing what you can do with

Mininet to change the networking world!

### Credits

The Mininet 2.1.0+ Team:

* Bob Lantz

* Brian O'Connor