Comdisco Inc, Rosemount, Illinois has announced European availability of BONeS, a software package for the design and simulation of networks, from local nets to mobile phone systems. Aimed at network engineers, the system – Block Oriented Network Simulator is what the name stands for – which runs on Sun Microsystems Inc and Digital Equipment Corp workstations, draws the network as a block diagram on screen. Comdisco says the program then simulates the behaviour of the system under a variety of conditions to predict events such as traffic change delays and node failure. Designers can define their own protocols to BONeS, either from scratch or by modifying exisitng definitions. A useful way, says Comdisco, to compare proprietary and standard systems. Network models supported include Ethernet, Token Ring, FDDI, X25 and Network File System. BONeS translates the completed program model into a C program. BONeS can also interface to protocol analysers, such as Hewlett Packard Co’s LanProbe or Network General Inc’s Sniffer to process real network traffic. Networks types that can be simulated using BONeS include local and wide area nets, ISDN networks, packet radio, packet and circuit switched networks and computer buses and architecture. The software, which first shipped in the US a year ago and now has around 200 users worldwide, including the University of California and Hughes Aircraft Co, is available for an average UK price of ?15,000 – that’s for a couple of users and a whole library of software. In the UK, users so far include Bristol University’s Centre of Communication Studies.
