[ns] Best Way?

[Maher Ali <mali@cse.unl.edu>]

Hello,

Here is what I would like to do using ns (a s/w I'm new to)

1. Each node sends information about the status of its incident links
(this information is a triple
 (int, string, array of floats) for each link) and is very difficult to
map to an integer cost value.

2. Each node now has a full view of the network. It computes the "optimal"
path to a destination based 
on the triple received from all other nodes. This new path now should  be
the one to be followed when I 
do sendpkt().

How can I accomplish this in ns?

For (1) how complex is it to change the LS header file by adding a new
field to hold the triple and flood the network with this information?

For (2) is it wise to change the routing table at the source node using
delete_route() and add_route() to enforce that the packet should go to a
specific neghbour and have the packet dictate the routing change at all 
intermediate nodes? (i.e., explicit routing)


I want the easiest and fastest way to accomplish this so that I focus on
optimization of the route selection in a centralized way at each source.

Thank you very much.

Maher