What is "ns"

n. (plural of n English)

ns (from network simulator) is a name for a series of discrete event network simulators, specifically ns-1, ns-2 and ns-3. All of them are discrete-event computer network simulators, primarily used in research and teaching. ns-3 is free software, publicly available under the GNU GPLv2 license for research, development, and use.

The goal of the ns-3 project is to create an open simulation environment for computer networking research that will be preferred inside the research community:

• It should be aligned with the simulation needs of modern networking research.
• It should encourage community contribution, peer review, and validation of the software.

Since the process of creation of a network simulator that contains a sufficient number of high-quality validated, tested and actively maintained models requires a lot of work, ns-3 project spreads this workload over a large community of users and developers.