This week, you will be doing another lab using the OpNet simulator. I decided to skip the Token Ring simulation. For this lab, you will again be simulating an Ethernet network, but this time you will compare the behavior of Ethernets that are built using hubs, switches, and a combination of the two.
This is another experiment from the Network Simulation Experiments Manual by Emad Aboelela (the same source as lab 5). This is experiment 3, A Set of Local Area Networks Interconnected by Switches.
Boot your machine in Windows and start OpNet then open the Switched LAN experiment in a browser and follow the instructions. After you have completed the steps in the experiment, answer the three questions at the end of the lab - the last question involves creating two additional scenarios, one that replaces the initial hub with a switch and one that uses two switches instead of two hubs and a switch.
You should end up with the following graphs that compare results for the hub versus the hubs and switch: traffic sent, traffic received, delay, collision count. In addition, you should have the following graphs that compare the hub, hubs and switch, switch, and two switches: delay, throughput (traffic received), and collision count.
Remember that OpNet has a couple of glitches; in particular, if you select a number of devices and set a parameter for them, even if you check the Apply Changes to Selected Objects, it might not always do it. So double-check the parameters to make sure they got set correctly.
Your lab report should include the following information:
Make sure that you are following Anthony's submission guidelines. Write up a reasonable lab report. As you discovered last week, you'll need to save the report as a PDF file so it is a reasonable size.
The lab write-up is due by the end of the day Wednesday (i.e. 11:59 PM) for the Tuesday lab section and by the end of the day Friday for the Thursday lab section.