Performance Comparison of Software Defined Networking Simulators for Tactical Network: Mininet vs. OPNET

Abstract

Software Defined Networking (SDN) has revolutionized the networking industry and also tactical communication due to its flexibility, innovation, and ease of programmability. However, modeling, evaluation, and testing of SDN based applications present several challenges. Mininet simulator has been developed for the study of SDN and used for SDN simulation in general. Although it is possible to prototype virtual SDN networks fast with Mininet, it is not for stress testing to validate the stability and reliability and simulation suitable for the real environment. The state-of-the-art network simulation tool OPNET recently OPNET has introduced the SDN Model, which can be used with a system in the loop (SITL). However, there is no research published yet which shows the use of OPNET for SDN. This paper rigorously compares the OPNET and Mininet for SDN experiments. we compare end-to-end delay, jitter, and RTT between controllers and switches. As a result, the Mininet environment cannot apply the network load, so it is desirable to use OPNET for simulation of the real environment or for the stability and reliability test.