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Virtualization and Network Simulation in Modern Computing : GNS3
Julissa Paramo

Introduction

Virtualization is a technology used to create virtual representations of servers, storage, networks, and other physical machines (Amazon Web Services, n.d). Virtualization is not only useful for network designers and developers to validate and test different networking components, but is also widely used in industry to save money on hardware resources.

GNS3

There are many network simulation tools available that provide virtualized networks, with GNS3 being amongst the most popular. GNS3 is an open-source graphical network simulator characterized by its user-friendly interface and offers the following features:

  • ·       Design of network topologies
  • ·       Emulation of Cisco routers and PIX firewalls
  • ·       Simulation of switches such as Ethernet, Frame Relay and ATM
  • ·       Ability to connect a virtualized network to a real live network
  • ·        Ability to capture and analyze packets with Wireshark ( Dayanand et. al., 2016).

Common Uses

GNS3 is commonly used by many individuals to help prepare for common network certifications such as the CCNA, CCNP, and CCIE (GNS3, n. d). Not only this, GNS3 is popularly used as a tool for learning and teaching networking topics, taking away the need for additional hardware or lab spaces.

Properties and Architecture

GNS3 is comprised of two main components: the GUI which is used to create network topologies, and the VM which acts as the server used to run the simulator. These can be divided further into 4 parts; the user interface, the controller, the compute, and the emulator. The user interface is the actual GNS3 web project that displays the different network topologies, the controller is the server for all the GNS3 projects, and the compute controls the emulators to run nodes (GNS3, n.d).

GNS3 is also able to run independently of a hypervisor, or software used to run virtualized machines, but it is still recommended to utilize the GNS3 VM specifically when on Windows or Mac OS (GNS3, n. d.).

Conclusion

To conclude, GNS3 stands out amongst other network simulators due to its ability to allow users to design network topologies, emulate routers, firewalls, switches, and connect virtual networks to live networks. It is a powerful tool for developers to test their network designs as well as a tool that offers solutions that are optimal for learning different networking topics.

References

Dayanand, L. N., Ghorbani, B., & Vaghri, S. (2016). A survey on the use of GNS3 for virtualizing computer networks. International Journal of Computer Science and Engineering, 5(1), 49-58.

What is Virtualization? - Cloud Computing Virtualization Explained - AWS. (n.d.). Amazon Web Services, Inc. https://aws.amazon.com/what-is/virtualization/

GNS3. (n. d.). Getting Started with GNS3. GNS3. Reterived February 25, 2025 from https://docs.gns3.com/docs/

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