Network simulation is a tool used to analyze and predict the performance of Industrial Internet of Things deployments while dealing with the complexity of real testbeds. Large network deployments with complex protocols such as transmission control protocol are subject to chaos-theory behavior, i.e., small changes in the implementation of the protocol stack or simulator behavior may result in large differences in the performance results. In this article, we present the results of simulating two different scenarios using three simulators. The first scenario focuses on the Incast phenomenon in a local area network where sensor data are collected. The second scenario focuses on a congested link traversed by the collected measurements. The performance metrics obtained from the simulators are compared among them and with ground-truth obtained from real network experiments. The results demonstrate how subtle implementation differences in network simulators impact performance results, and how network engineers must consider these differences.

中文翻译：

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支持 TCP 的工业物联网环境中的网络仿真 - 性能评估的再现性问题


网络仿真是一种用于分析和预测工业物联网部署性能的工具，同时处理真实测试台的复杂性。具有复杂协议（例如传输控制协议）的大型网络部署容易受到混沌理论行为的影响，即协议栈或模拟器行为的实现中的微小变化可能会导致性能结果的巨大差异。在本文中，我们展示了使用三个模拟器模拟两种不同场景的结果。第一个场景重点关注收集传感器数据的局域网中的 Incast 现象。第二种场景侧重于收集的测量数据所经过的拥塞链路。从模拟器获得的性能指标将在它们之间进行比较，并与从真实网络实验获得的地面实况进行比较。结果展示了网络模拟器中细微的实现差异如何影响性能结果，以及网络工程师必须如何考虑这些差异。