ns (v2.1b3) and ns-allinone(v2.1b3) release

[Ya Xu <yaxu@ISI.EDU>]

Ns 2.1b3 and ns-allinone 2.1b3 have now been released !

WHAT'S NS?
----------

Ns is a discrete event simulator targeted at networking research.
It provides substantial support for simulation of TCP, routing, and
multicast protocols.

Ns began as a variant of the REAL network simulator in 1989 and has
evolved substantially over the past few years.  The ns development
effort is now an ongoing collaboration with the VINT project.

WHAT'S NS-ALLINONE?
----------
 
Ns-allinone is a package which contains required components and some of
optional components used in running ns. The package contains an
"install" script to automatically configure, compile and install these
components. If you haven't installed ns before and want to quickly try
ns out, ns-allinone may be easier than getting all the pieces by hand.


WHAT'S NEW IN NS 2.1b3?
--------------------

New features in this version include:

- Test-suites: Validation tests for Full TCP, ECN, TCP initial windows,
               manual routing, session simulation 

- scneario generator: routing generator, agent generator and topology
                      generator

- Revised API between Agents and Applications.

- Reworked RLM implementation

- Many changes to FullTcp (fixes to timestamps; restructuring of dupack
  actions; fix an off-by-1 problem for window deflation; ECN; 5 new tests
  to test-suite-full.tcl; adding tracing of the congestion action bit)

- Added support for classinstvars (delayed binding between C++ and Tcl) 
  to save memory

- Added support for exhaustive selective packet loss over lans.

- Added token bucket filter support

- Added Packet Reference Count for SessionSim

- Lots of additions and mods for snoop version 2 and Explicit Loss
  Notifications

- Added support for measurement based admission control for controlled
  load service

- Revised and more flexible addressing format which allows allocation
  of bits for port, node and mcast fields

- Added support for hierarchical routing for up to 3 levels

- Trace: nam trace functionality to admission control modules.
         nam trace functionality to tcp, srm event and statistical info
 
WHAT'S NEW IN ns-allinone 2.1b3 ?     
 
The ns-allinone release (2.1b3) includes
 
- Tcl     Tcl release 8.0p2     (required component)
- Tk      Tk release 8.0p2      (required component)
- Otcl    otcl release 1.0a3    (required component)
- TclCL   tclcl release 1.0b6   (required component)
- Ns      ns release 2.1b3      (required component)
- Nam     Nam release 1.0a4     (optional component)
- Xgraph  xgraph version 12     (optional component)
- Gt-itm  GT-ITM & sgb2ns 1.1   (optional component, currently only on
				 SunOS, Solaris, and FreeBSD)

Ns-2.1b3 and ns-allinone-2.1b3 are available from
<http://www-mash.cs.berkeley.edu/ns/ns-build.html>

Ns-2.1b3 requires TclCL-1.0b6, otcl-1.0a3, and either
Tcl-7.6/Tk4.2 or Tcl/Tk-8.0.  New versions of TclCL and otcl are also
available from <http://www-mash.cs.berkeley.edu/ns/ns-build.html>.



Thanks,

Ya Xu
ISI/USC