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Simulate network traffic with open source tools

Plan of Action

Article from ADMIN 90/2025

By Holger Reibold

Network simulators provide the information admins need to plan and grow wired and wireless networks.

Digitilization of the economy is leading to a rapidly increasing demand for powerful IT infrastructures in almost all industries. While some seek salvation in the cloud, others are assessing their needs and trying to ensure that their own infrastructure is sufficiently scalable to cope with sudden spikes in demand.

Although basic network standards have hardly changed in recent decades, the increasing volume of traffic is posing significant challenges for organizations. To ensure reliability, it's important for infrastructures to have a clear-cut design that offers scope for expansion. Network simulation helps admins with the demanding tasks this responsibility involves. In practice, this technology can be used in various contexts:

Replacing physical networks: Physical networks are difficult to instantiate, although it makes sense to experiment with scenarios that are as concrete as possible. Visual tools help create subnets or remote networks with just a few clicks.
Early prototyping: Industrial applications in particular require the ongoing development of existing protocol families. Simulators allow protocols, such as those promoted by ODVA (formerly Open DeviceNet Vendors Association, Inc.), to be tested and allow users to familiarize themselves with the protocols. In this way, organizations can gain initial experience with the Common Industrial Protocol (CIP), the Open Screen Network Protocol, or the Open Screen Application Protocol, for example, and modeling facilitates planning and testing.
Error analysis and optimization: Simulations help identify potential bottlenecks and issues before they materialize. They also provide clues for the best possible load distribution configuration and resource utilization. Additionally, insights for optimizing security can be derived.

Creating virtual duplicates of existing networks to recreate specific scenarios and develop a better understanding of specific phenomena

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