[ns] how to get global topology ?

[Pavan Verma <csu97136@cse.iitd.ernet.in>]

I am simulating a fault-tolerance scheme that assumes the existence of a
global-topology database. I've been trying to integrate LS with our
scheme, so that I get the global topology at every node, which I can
access from my agent type. 

 The basic question I face is:
 How does Agent A1 (say of our type) sitting on node $n0 access the fields
of Agent A2 (say of type LS) sitting on the same node ?
 Is this at all possible ? or will I have to mesh our code with the LS
code to be able to access the global topology generated by rtProtoLS ?

 If its not possible to it this way, is there any way I can maintain a
global topology at the simulator level rather than the node level.. 

(a little question here: in the hierarchy is there anything higher than
the node ?? eg the Simulator where I could add in our own fields like
globalTopo etc. ?)

which the nodes can simply access when they want to.. 

for example , right at the beginning I could feed in the topology info
into the field (say globalTopo) of the simulator instance as nodes and
links are added, and when a link goes down or up, I could just modify the
global topology instead of every node having to maintain a copy, since our
scheme just assumes that all nodes have some way of accessing the global
topology and I don't exactly have to simulate the creation and  
maintenance of the topology per se.  
  
Regards,
Pavan.

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Pavan Verma                            csu97136@cse.iitd.ernet.in	
Senior Undergraduate                   http://www.cse.iitd.ernet.in/~csu97136
Computer Sc & Engg, IIT Delhi

"I may appear to be just sitting here like a bucket of tapioca, but don't
let appearances fool you.  I'm approaching old age ... at the speed of light."
		-- Prof. Cosmo Fishhawk
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