YNTDL (Entitle) was created to allow for simple, understandable, and scalable text descriptions of network topologies. Much like an hardware description language (HDL) is to hardware, YNTDL describes the structure and behavior of networks. YNTDL was created as part of the ns3-lxc project (https://github.com/buzz66boy/ns3-lxc) and separated to allow for further development and usage in other applications.
Resources, including example topology files and a readme on how to write topology files can be found in the resources folder.
YNTDL describes networks in terms of:
- links: connects to n interfaces
- interfaces: connects to one link, assigned an IP address (later adding mac addresses)
- nodes: has associated physical position, applications, and n interfaces
- applications: exist on associated nodes
These four objects are combined to form a network topology. A network topology can also consist of multiple other network topologies (subtopologies).
The true power of YNTDL is the ability to instantiate network topologies inside of other network topologies. By explicitly naming exposed interfaces and links (network edges) in an included topology, there's no need to dive into a subtopology's, subtopology's definition to create a connection. Using address and position offsets mitigates the need for hard-coding IP addresses.
- yaml-cpp - https://github.com/jbeder/yaml-cpp
-
yaml-cpp - libyaml-cpp-dev AND libyaml-cpp0.5v5 Note: Tested with libyaml-cpp-dev and yaml-cpp release v0.6 as well
-
CMake - cmake
-
Make - make
-
GCC - gcc
- Either
sudo apt install libyaml-cpp-dev libyaml-cpp-0.5v5or - Download yaml-cpp (release v0.6) and follow the install instructions. You may still need the libyaml-cpp-dev package.
sudo dnf install yaml-cpp yaml-cpp-devel
After installing dependencies, from the main git directory:
cmake .
make
sudo make installThis will install the yntdl shared library on your system for other programs to use.
After installing, it is prudent to test linking to the library. You can do this with the tester utility or the print utility.
cd utilities
cmake . # this tests cmake finding the library
make
output/test_yntdl # if the header was included, an "it worked!" should be displayedA topology printer is included in the utilities directory (and is built via the same cmake file as the tester). Refer to the README located in the utilities/printer directory for a detailed usage guide.
Should this "language" be adopted by a substantial following, it is important that the calamity of the word "gif" not be repeated. You may pronounce this language's name/abbreviation as you like, "Entitle", "En-tidal", "Young-teedle", have at it.