Tcl tutorial for Begineers

Initially, we should get ns or tcl shell installed to work with tcl script. 

If you didn't install ns2, click here for the installation procedure. Else, follow the tutorial. 

After installing ns-2, type ns in terminal. Then, there appears % symbol, which symbolizes the invokement of tcl shell script.

Note(optional): TCL scripting individually can be practiced with in Linux system with tcl shell scripting.

NS-2 Network Simulator

For the latest information about the ns Network Simulator, go to the ns manual ay http://www.isi.edu/nsnam/ns/  or http://www.isi.edu/nsnam/ns/ns-documentation.html .

For examples, go to the downloaded ns package folder at ns-2/tcl/ex. In addition, other tutorials include the Marc Greis’s tutorial and the tutorial by Jae Chung - Mark Claypool.

Ns simulator is based on two languages: C++ as the back-end and the oTcl (object-oriented version of tool command language, tcl) as the front-end. NS is a discrete event simulator, where the advance of time depends on the timing of events, which are maintained by a scheduler.

Some Esssential Commands List:

ns – command to verify the installation of tcl shell script and ns network simulator

ns-version – command to return the ns version

ns-random – command to return a random number, uniformly distributed between [0-(2³¹-1)].

ns-random var – var  is used to set the seed to random number generator. 

MannaSim Script generator framework installation procedure

MannaSim framework

• It is the Script generator used mainly for wireless sensor network research.
• It was written in TCL and C++ for NS-2 network simulator. 
• It is used for creating TCL scripts for the front-end activity done in MannaSim framework GUI.

MannaSim Installation: 

It can be installed in two ways: 

1. Installing Mannasim patch   (easier method)

2. Using Mannasim Source code

Method 1 - Installing Mannasim patch:

• This is easier way for installing Mannsim; 
• But, ensure that you didn't modify the ns-2 distribution files. At the time of writing this blog, the ns-2 distribution is with version 2.29.

Step 1: Click here to download ns-2.29 all-in-one package from ns site.
Step 2: Click here to download MannaSim Framework ns-2.29 patch.
Step 3: Type the following command on the ns-allinone-2.29 folder:

patch -p1 < file_name.diff

Step 4: Install ns-2.29 as usual typing ns-allinone-2.29 folder:

./install

Method 2 - Using Mannasim Source Code:

Step 1: Download Manasim.tar.gz file
Step 2: untar the file by typing

tar zxvf manasim.tar.gz

Step 3: A new folder titles manasim with appear. copy that file and paste it in /home/usernname/ns2.35-allinone/ns.2.35/
Step 4: Open the mansim folder. Then, go to ns-modified-files folder. There you can find a few files.
Copy the files from the ns-modified-files/ to these locations:

ns-allinone-2.35/ns-2.35/apps/udp.cc

ns-allinone-2.35/ns-2.35/common/ns-process.h

ns-allinone-2.35/ns-2.35/common/packet.cc

ns-allinone-2.35/ns-2.35/common/packet.h

ns-allinone-2.35/ns-2.35/Makefile.in

ns-allinone-2.35/ns-2.35/tcl/lib/ns-default.tcl

ns-allinone-2.35/ns-2.35/tcl/lib/ns-lib.tcl

Step 5:Then, go to /home/username/ns2.35-allinone/ns2.35
Then, type each command at terminal

$ ./configure

$ make

After installing and configuring using either of the methods above, to open the GUI, java is essential. So, to install java, run the following commands in terminal:

sudo apt-get install java
sudo apt-get install openjdk-7-jdk