
OMNeT++ is a discrete event based network simulation framework which provides modularity in open architecture for simulation of computer and related communication networks. OMNeT++ Modeling and Simulation is being used by many researchers and academicians in recent years. We present here basic step by step guide to use OMNeT++, its installation, configuration and building along with screenshots. The basic guideline is published at http://omnetpp.org/doc/omnetpp41/InstallGuide.pdf.
I am using OMNeT++ for my thesis in Sensor Network, visit the category Sensor Network to read more about this.
Requirements of OMNeT++ Simulator:
The supported OS are Windows XP (32x) and later versions, MAC (32x), Linux (64x) are supported. I still can’t configure OMNeT++ in 64 bit version of Windows 7. Install latest version of Java from java.com prior to OMNeT++, this shall be good when you work in Eclipse-based Simulation IDE for OMNeT++. (To confirm if your computer has already installed Java, click here)
How to install OMNeT++ ?
- Installation of OMNeT++ is rather easy. Download the source code from the official website at http://omnetpp.org for your OS, here I downloaded for 32x version of Windows 7. (I suggest you to download zipped file)
- Copy that just downloaded zip file to the directory where you want to install and work in OMNeT++. Ensure that you don’t have any spaces for the folders (better to have single word folder name like OMNeT, avoid folder names like Program Files)
- Extract the file. For the 4.1 version of OMNeT++, you shall have a new omnetpp-4.1 directory just created after extraction of the archive, inside which you can see many files and folders. (I have 24 files/folders inside the directory D:\OMNeT\omnetpp-4.1 )
- It is a better idea to read the pdf guide inside the location: OMNeT\omnetpp-4.1\doc\InstallGuide.(however this is the same online documentation files which you read on the first paragraph of this article)
How to configure & build OMNeT++?
As you must have already known that what we downloaded and installed in earlier steps was all for the source code of OMNeT++. To have an executing program, we need to configure and build OMNeT++ Simulator out of that source codes.
- Open file mingwenvlocated inside the omnetpp-4.1 folder. You shall be prompted with a welcome screen as shows below.
Welcome Screen OMNeT++ - Time to build the “thing” we need, enter the following commands serially, which shall build release binaries.
$ ./confgure
$ make
Take a cup of coffee, this might take a couple of minutes to complete. This also installs the sample files and debug the same. Take a look at the screenshot, ensure your installation path of OMNeT++ is okay. - Verify the installation to test if all sample files are installed correctly, use the following commands for that.
$ cd samples/dyna
$ ./dyn
All the sample files will be run, you will see the graphical Tkenv GUI environment, as illustrated here. - Set up an Inifile Configuration (we select “8-client computers”) when prompted in the OMNeT++/Tkenv window.
- You can safely exit from windows interfaces when you are done playing with it.
How to Start/Open/Run OMNeT++ IDE?
We have already installed Java in early steps of this article. OMNeT++ comes with an Eclipse-based Simulation IDE. Open the file mingwenv if you have closed it, then to start the IDE type
$ omnetpp
OR
Open omnetpp executable file directly from omnetpp-4.1/ide folder. I suggest you to have a shortcut link to start IDE or you can pin it to the taskbar in Windows 7. In my case, the complete path to omnetpp IDE is D:\OMNeT\omnetpp-4.1\ide\omnetpp.exe.
Select the folder for sample files when prompted. You can see the Eclipse-based Simulating Integrated Development Environment for OMNeT++ as illustrated here. Now, time to play around various icons and others.