Software Simulations Offer Many Benefits

The 1982 Nobel prize winner, Kenneth G. Wilson (then from Physics at Cornell University), outlined 3 paradigms of science:

• Theory
• Repeatable experimentation
• Software simulation

Often, "real" networks cannot be used to test student-written low-level protocol software.

Software simulations provide a far higher degree of experimentation than possible with limited hardware and software resources.

Moreover, extensible simulation environments may be driven by real, observed measurements, such as network trace-data.

Nearly all research into computer networking, such as the development and evaluation of new protocols and standards published in journals and conferences, is supported by simulations which, often, provide their source code and data.