[Ns-developers] [ns3] topology API

[Joseph Kopena]

On Jan 15, 2008 3:23 AM, Mathieu Lacage <mathieu.lacage at sophia.inria.fr> wrote:
>   - construct multiple objects in one go. For example, the WifiHelper
> class can create the RateControl object for you and assign it to the
> associated WifiNetDevice.

So, I think then the question is: How much can the WifiHelper be
abstracted such that it becomes the swappable point for creating
different networks?  For example, maybe it's not WiFiHelper, but
WiFiAdHocHelper & WiFiManagedHelper, both of which have the same
interface & can be hot swapped.  There are definitely some issues
there---ad hoc & managed wifi are fundamentally different in that the
latter needs to choose or create an access point, and similarly
they're both fundamentally different from P2P via broadcast ability,
but that's maybe not insurmountable.  It might also not be necessary.
If this sort of thing is a total disaster resulting in huge object
model discussions, maybe it's ultimately easier to write several very
similar simulation scripts rather than have a really flexible,
run-time changeable sim creation API; let the users build their own
ad-hoc structures to implement their needed flexibility.  Ultimately
they're going to do that anyway if the built in system is too complex.
 This does not change the need for the ability to configure "deep"
internal paramaters though, like the TCP window size, WiFi retry
limit, etc...


I'd also like to second Gustavo's note that I find APIs more
accessible that have less functions & more values to those functions.
That way at least there's a single place to look for all the things it
can do.  For example, I find it nicer to have a Set(param, value)
function rather than SetParamA(val), SetParamB(val), SetParamFoo(val)
suite.

Thx

-- 
- joe kopena
  right here and now