Three commonly used Simulators: Web, IOS & Network Simulators
A number of simulation systems are being developed, every day. Needless to mention their applications and uses! For example, flight simulators are used for training pilots to be able to respond quickly in critical flight situations. They are equipped with features that are aimed for pilots to think that they are actually driving a real plane; or the prevailing flight situation is actually a real one. Similarly, military simulation systems make the troops believe that they are interfacing with real opponents in a real battle.
Today, a number of simulators have come up related to testing and verifying the networking applications and day-to-day functions. We are highlighting only three of the most important simulators here.
Web Simulator
One of the main simulators that is used today is the Web simulator. This is used to simulate a real web server. It is mainly used for the developers of web based applications. Actually, most of the projects that are based on this simulator are aimed at coming up with testing the scalability of the web based applications that is capable of managing thousands of web services. The main essence of having the simulator is to make sure that all the necessary requirements of the web application have been met. There are numerous features that come with this simulator. Most of the features are aimed at starting, stopping and changing various fields for web app developers to easily come up with high performance applications with no errors. There are tools for debugging web based systems and to check their performance before they can be in operation.
IOS Simulator
Another important simulator that is commonly used today is the Cisco IOS Simulator. This is one of the most popular simulators that are available today. It comes with a number of features that have been incorporated for purposes of replicating a real IOS. The IOS is the operating system for Cisco. IOS simulator works on Cisco devices which include the 3640, 7206, 6260, 6500 and works seamlessly with, Cisco Prime Infrastructure, GSR manager, Cisco works 2000 and other network management applications. The simulator can replicate thousands of Cisco devices and then Telnet/SSH in to those devices. Then send “Show” commands to get the configuration and “Configure” commands to set the configurations, just like real Cisco devices.
Network Simulator
Another simulator that is also used on a wide scale is the Network Simulator. It boasts of many features that make it suitable for simulating a real network. The network simulator is actually software that is mainly used for predicting the behaviour and performance of any network applications. Under normal circumstances, it is difficult to analyse computer networks due to their complex nature. Therefore, network simulators are used to study their behaviour. It can simulate thousands of networking devices to try various scenarios to make sure applications manage those correctly.
