Building a Mininet-based Fiber Optic Simulator

Mininet is a network emulation platform that allows for the creation of a virtualized software defined network(SDN). Emulation of network links that are not ethernet is limited, however. Evaluation of fiber optic networks is limited by the cost of the devices and the space required to deploy a network for testing. This work puts forth a simulation platform that allows for the creation of virtual networks via Mininet that allows for the simulation of optical links. Our work has been evaluated by comparing the simulated attenuation values to values gathered in a real fiber testbed to show its capability to model certain characteristics of optical links. Our evaluation shows that the simulation platform is capable of accurately modeling attenuation in fiber optic links.