SIMLAB-a simulation environment for storage area networks

In this paper we present a simulation environment for storage area networks called SIMLAB. SIMLAB is a part of the PRESTO project, which is a joint project of the Electrical Engineering Department and the Computer Science Department of the Paderborn University. The aim of the PRESTO project is to construct a scalable and resource-efficient storage network that can support the real-time delivery of data. SIMLAB has been implemented to aid the development and verification of distributed algorithms for this storage network. However, it has been designed in such a way that it can also be used for the simulation of many other types of networking problems. SIMLAB is based on C++ and common libraries and input/output formats, which ensures that SIMLAB can be used on many different platforms. We therefore expect SIMLAB to be useful also for other people working on similar problems.