Beyond simulation: large-scale distributed emulation of P2P protocols

This paper presents details on the design and implementation of a scalable framework for evaluating peerto-peer protocols. Unlike systems based on simulation, emulation-based systems enable the experimenter to obtain data that reflects directly on the concrete implementation in much greater detail. This paper argues that emulation is a better model for experiments with peer-topeer protocols since it can provide scalability and high flexibility while eliminating the cost of moving from experimentation to deployment. We discuss our unique experience with large-scale emulation using the GNUnet peer-to-peer framework and provide experimental results to support these claims. 1