Workstation Model

LAN Environment

Workstation Model

In addition to the common Computing Device properties, the Workstation model features network routing protocols and the capability to generate data packet traffic destined for other Computing Device models throughout your model LAN network. The Workstation equipment model is the primary traffic generator in the LAN environment. The logical architecture of a Workstation model is depicted in Figure 4.7.

Figure 4.7: Workstation Model Architecture

This model attaches traffic generator modules to the processor unit to spawn outgoing data packets. You can have multiple traffic generators in each Workstation model, or you can have no traffic generators at all.

A sample Workstation model control panel is displayed in Figure 4.8.

Figure 4.8: Sample Workstation Model Controls

In addition to the processor and hardware properties, this model has network routing and traffic generator controls and also a push button to access the associated NIC controls. The Network Routing protocol property is controlled through a simple radio control, and the contents of any routing caches can be displayed by selecting the

button. The "Network Layer" section of Appendix A, "Protocols," discusses routing protocols in detail.

The list box in the Traffic Generators section of the control panel contains the names of all the traffic generators attached to this model. The and buttons operate on the item selected in the list box, and clicking the button creates a new traffic generator.

The control panel for a LAN traffic generator (Figure 4.9) is displayed when you click either the or button.

Figure 4.9: Sample LAN Traffic Generator Controls

These controls are very similar to a telecom call generator. The Size Distn determines the number of bytes of data to send as traffic to another Computing Device model, and the Rate Distn controls the time between traffic generation. The Net Protocol controls are not used by netWorks at this time, and the Destinations controls are completely analogous to the Destinations controls in the telecom environment. The intent of the Applications section is to provide predefined traffic generators modeling common network applications. The default Application values are for demonstration purposes only.

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