[c-nsp] network simulator

[Ivan Pepelnjak]

Dynamips (which is under the hood of GNS3) could be used to emulate IOS
switching behavior as long as what you're trying to do is supported on the
routers. If you're testing standard spanning tree, Dynamips should be just
fine (you'll just configure routers as bridges).

OPNET is a great network simulation tool. I've used it years ago and I was
deeply impressed. They might have academic or test licenses.

You might also want to consider Cisco's PacketTracer:
http://www.cisco.com/web/learning/netacad/course_catalog/PacketTracer.html

Some other tools are listed here:
http://www.idsia.ch/~andrea/sim/simnet.html

Best regards
Ivan
 
http://www.ioshints.info/about
http://blog.ioshints.info/


> I'm looking for a (free) network simulator that allows me to 
> simulate a small network (20 switches) with different vlans 
> on it. I want to test different scenario's : what happens if 
> this switch goes down or that link goes down, how do the 
> packets flow in each scenario for the different vlans...
>  
> Anyone has a good reference to such a product ? Free would be 
> nice but is no absolute condition.