[ns] Newbie Q: Simulation of traffic trunks in ns ?

[Florian-Daniel Otel <otel@ce.chalmers.se>]

Dear all,

I would like to know if it is possible (i.e. there are modules) to
simulate network flows (traffic trunks) in ns. What I am intrested in
is to be able to generate traffic trunks with certain
properties e.g. models of arrival rate, aggregate bandwidth, flow
lifetime and such and test -say-  the stability of IGPs/QoS routing
protocols in response to network events like a link failure in a
carrier backbone network and measure things like flow blocking
probability. 

AFAIK ns is a packet-based simulator for testing protocols and I cannot find
any information about ns being used for such backbone network traffic
simulations. Still, despite the notorious steep learning curve of ns 
I would be really happy if this type of simulations are possible in
ns due to several advantages it has.

If not, can anyone suggest (off-list) what would be an appropriate
environment for this kind of simulations and prior experiences ?


TIA,

Florian.

P.S. Please Cc: me, I'm not on the list. I tried to browse the ns mailing
list archives about info in this sense but couldn't find anything. If I
did miss smth pls point me to the reference.