Open MATE Plan File to Design and Simulate Topologies

Designing and Simulating Topologies

MATE enables you to model, simulate, and analyze both design changes and failures. This is done by working on MATE plan files that consist of a series of tables describing network characteristics, such as network topology, simulated traffic (demands), and routing protocols. Specifically, the MATE license for use in Junosphere Lab gives you the following capabilities.

Build IGP topologies, including the import of IGP databases
Simulate traffic using demands
Simulate failures to determine the effects of such failures on your network
Run the Simulation Analysis tool to determine worst-case failure scenarios
MPLS and BGP simulation capabilities

Documentation Note ― This section of the documentation gives you very brief overviews and instructions to get you started. To best understand how to use the MATE product, refer to its documentation. You can access it through the Help menu in the MATE graphical user interface or in the $CARIDEN_HOME/docs/pdf directory. ($CARIDEN_HOME is the directory in which you downloaded MATE). If you are new to MATE, you will likely find the following material most helpful:

Tutorials: Getting Started, Simulate Failures, Lay Out the Network, Engineer Traffic Using RSVP TE, and Model BGP
User Guide chapters: Plan Files, User Interface, Traffic Demand Modeling, Failures and Simulation Analysis, IGP and MPLS Simulation, and BGP Simulation

Open and Save Plan Files

The first step to using MATE is to open a MATE plan file by selecting the File->Open menu. Either enter or browse to the plan file.

To save the model that you create on the MATE virtual machine for use after the Junosphere Lab session ends, save the plan file to a local storage device. Select either the File->Save or File->Save As menu. These plan files must be saved in .pln format, which is the default. You can then use the plan file in subsequent Junosphere Lab sessions, MATE trial use, or if you purchase Cariden MATE software.

Create a MATE Network Topology

You have three options for creating a network topology.

Import an existing MATE plan file ― If you already have a plan file of your current deployment, contact junosphere@cariden.com for assistance in importing this plan file
Import an OSPF or IS-IS database ― Open the MATE graphical user interface and follow the instructions in the Import IGP Database section.
Build a network from scratch ― Open the MATE graphical user interface and use the available tools for creating a topology. See the Build a Topology section.

Import IGP Database

Follow these steps to import an IGP database using the MATE graphical user interface.

Select the File->Import IGP Database menu. A dialog box appears with available import options.
Either enter a complete path or browse to the location of the IGP database file.
Select whether to import an OSPF or IS-IS database.
- For OSPF, the default area is 0 (zero). If needed, specify a different area or select All to import all OSPF areas.
- For IS-IS, the default level is 2. Change this to level 1, if needed.
If you want the DNS (domain name server) to resolve IP addresses (router names) in the IS-IS database file, select the DNS option.
Click OK. The MATE network plot area populates with the imported topology.

Build a Topology

The most basic components of a MATE topology are nodes, sites, circuits, and interfaces. In a MATE network plot, each node represents a router, and nodes are contained within sites. Circuits connect the nodes, and each circuit contains two interfaces. The MATE GUI has numerous tools for creating a topology that includes these objects and more. Following are a few basic editing functions:

To add objects, use either the Insert menu or right-click in an empty area and select New from the context menu. Notice that when you add an object, it appears in the associated table below the plot.
You can duplicate most objects by right-clicking on it and selecting Duplicate from the context menu.
You can drag objects to any location.
A more powerful tool for arranging multiple objects simultaneously is the Arrange Sites tool. Right-click in an empty plot area, and select Arrange Sites from the context menu. Select one or more sites before clicking on a button associated with the arrangement you need.
To delete objects, right-click on the object and select Delete from the context menu.

Add Simulated Traffic to the Topology

MATE uses demands to simulate traffic between source and destination endpoints within the network. Each demand has a specified amount of traffic. The demand traffic is the basis for many of MATE's tools.

Unless you are using an existing MATE plan file, you likely need to create demands.

To create a single demand, either select the Insert->Demand menu, or right-click and select New->Demand from the context menu.
To create a group of meshed demands, either select the Insert->Demand Mesh menu, or right-click and select New->Demand Mesh from the context menu.

By default, demands have no traffic. There are a number of tools for adding traffic to demands. The following are just a few basic methods. For more information, refer to the documentation.

Select one or more demands from the Demands table (below network plot), double-click to open a Properties dialog box, and enter traffic into the Traffic field.
Select the Edit->Traffic Mesh menu. Select one or more demands in the dialog box that appears. Right-click in any field, and select Set Value. You can set a fixed amount for all demands, or you can have MATE randomly set demand traffic between the specified range that you enter.
Select one or more demands from the Demands table, right-click, and select Modify Demand Traffic from the context menu. Here, you have a number of options for setting demand traffic.

The interfaces are then colored based on the percentage of the interface capacity being used by traffic.

Simulate Failures and Run Simulation Analysis

You can perform simple failures, as well as execute a detailed simulation analysis that calculates worst-case performance of the network over a range of failure scenarios. The latter, which is executed using the Simulation Analysis tool, not only graphically plots network behavior when objects fail, but also provides an analysis of the consequences of such behavior. Alternatively, you can use this tool to identify the failures causing the highest utilizations.

To simulate single failures, right-click on a circuit, and select Fail from the context menu. When you fail a circuit, notice the changes in how the interfaces are colored. This shows you the redistribution of traffic due to this failure. To recover, right-click on failed circuit and select Recover from the context menu.

To run a Simulation Analysis, select the Tools->Simulation Analysis menu.