Aug 17

3D Spanning Tree Simulator

Category: Informatics

After the semester finished I finally found some time to publish the 3D STP Simulator that I’ve developed for my Diploma Thesis.

The Python application features a GTK GUI (wxPython) to build and control a custom network topology and a VPython frontend to visualize virtual switches and network cables in a 3D environment.

The program still is a proof of concept. If you intend to try it out, I’d be happy to get feedback and bug reports. Please make sure to use wxPython version 2.8 or higher as there is a problem with the spinbox callback of older implementations.

3D STP Network Simulator

If you are interested in Ethernet switching algorithms – especially in the industrial field – you can also take a look at the Diploma Thesis (German, PDF, 10 MByte) itself. Again I’d like to hear your feedback.

9 comments

9 Comments so far

  1. Guillermo August 24th, 2007 10:14

    Interesting, although my german is not good enough to follow. It is an interesting idea to use Python. Have you implemented STP or RSTP?. I will suggest it for future Master Thesis.
    Regards
    G

  2. kriss August 24th, 2007 12:56

    It’s STP, as it was faster to implement (just porting the C-Code from IEEE-802.1D-1998).
    But one could extended the code by RSTPNode and RSTPPort classes.

    The Idea use Python was triggered by my Thesis Supervisor, Prof. Dr. Ruediger Weis. And it turned out to be the right choice for a fast development progress.

    I’d really appreciate it if anyone wants to build on that work.

  3. rogerz November 14th, 2007 7:57

    I’ve got the similar idea. Recently I am reading IEEE 802.1D-2004 and find it quite hard to understand in a short time

  4. jose July 26th, 2008 10:53

    cool

  5. rafa September 24th, 2008 17:40

    My name is Rafael tronco, from Spain. I have read your diploma thesis “3D Spanning Tree Simulator” as a suggestion from my tutor Guillermo Ibañez from University of Alcala, and I would like to work on it. I´m interested in turn it into “3D Rapid Spanning Tree Simulator”. Could you bring me some help or any tip that can be useful with this? Thank you.

  6. kriss September 24th, 2008 18:09

    Hi Rafael, I’ll send you a mail. Thanks for the comment, I hope to link to your 3D RSTP Simulator, once it’s done. :-)

  7. kriss September 24th, 2008 18:53

    copy of the mail:

    Hi Rafael

    Yes, I can support your development process. You’ll need the IEEE RSTP Standard and will then have to understand and implement the state machines in Python.

    I’d suggest starting with two new classes RSTPNode.py and RSTPPort.py. Also there is a bug with newer wxPython version and the spin boxes. To play around with those you can use text input or try to disable setting the value in the callback (which is done automatically now, resulting in a recursive call and an endless loop).

  8. Arun Saha July 9th, 2009 1:36

    I am looking for an STP simulator, and your tool is the right one for me. I downloaded and installed it, but facing some problems.

    The error messages are:

    Xlib: extenstion “GLX” missing

    Gtk-WARNING **” invalid cast from (NULL) pointer to ‘GtkWdisget’
    OpenGL initialization failed.
    Unable to create OpenGL display widget

    Would you mind writing a basic HOWTO on using your tool?

    Regards,
    Arun

  9. kriss September 8th, 2009 0:29

    Hi Arun,

    it’s on my ToDo now. – have you got it working in the mean time?

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