What is "planetsim"

PlanetSim is an object oriented simulation framework for overlay networks and services. This framework presents a layered and modular architecture with well defined hotspots documented using classical design patterns. In PlanetSim, developers can work at two main levels: creating and testing new overlay algorithms like Chord or Pastry, or creating and testing new services ( DHT, CAST, DOLR, etc.) on top of existing overlays.

PlanetSim also aims to enable a smooth transition from simulation code to experimentation code running in the Internet. Because of this, we provide wrapper code that takes care of network communication and permits us to run the same code in network testbeds such as PlanetLab. Moreover, distributed services in the simulator use the Common API for Structured Overlays. This enables complete transparency to services running either against the simulator or the network.

PlanetSim has been developed in the Java language to reduce complexity and smooth the learning curve in our framework. We however have profiled and optimised the code to enable scalable simulations in reasonable time. To validate the utility of our approach, we have implemented two overlays ( Chord and Symphony) and a variety of services like CAST, DHT, and object middleware. We have proved that PlanetSim reproduces the measures of these environments and is also efficient in its network implementation.