Actually, these are two different simulator categories. While NS2 is an open source (free) simulator, the QUALNET is a commercial (not free) one. QUALNET is based on the GloMoSim used by Scalable Network Technologies (SNT) and has a full graphical user interface to accomplish almost all the job. In NS2, you don't have such interface and you will need to write a script for anything you want to do (you will be interested by NS3, the successor of NS3, where the code is object oriented). This is a general comparison, choosing between the two simulators depends on your needs and constraints.
Actually, these are two different simulator categories. While NS2 is an open source (free) simulator, the QUALNET is a commercial (not free) one. QUALNET is based on the GloMoSim used by Scalable Network Technologies (SNT) and has a full graphical user interface to accomplish almost all the job. In NS2, you don't have such interface and you will need to write a script for anything you want to do (you will be interested by NS3, the successor of NS3, where the code is object oriented). This is a general comparison, choosing between the two simulators depends on your needs and constraints.
Selecting the best simulator depends on many issues:
First, what do you want to do with the simulator, and what is your contribution?
is the module, algorithm, protocol, etc you want to modify is available in that simulator or not?
which programming language do you like to use for developing your contribution?
do you need more than one technique to combine (e.g. MIPvs and WiMax) for setting up your simulation scenario, and are they available under one simulation and work properly under one version of that simulator?
Second, there things related to speed of execution, memory and CPU consumption and capability of network simulators. You may find good discussion about these issues in these articles;
http://www.comsys.rwth-aachen.de/fileadmin/papers/2009/2009-weingaertner-simulator_comparison.pdf
http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1307/1307.4129.pdf
There are some pros and cons of NS-2 and QualNet.
For instance, the advantage of NS-2 is that it is an open source simulator, so you have all the code available and you will have full freedom to modify any thing you want. But its limitations are that (a) it does not have good GUI support, you will have to analyze through trace file and filter your required data using AWK scripts and (b) there is no good support of debugging in NS-2, so you will have to debug using print/cout statements which is very very time consuming.
On the contrary, QualNet is a commercial software, so (a) one of its limitation is that it hides the source code of some files (e.g., channel propagation) files. So, you cannot do modification for such files. (b) Its another limitation is that since it is a commercial software, therefore it is paid and is much expensive. Its advantages are (a) very good debugging support as it is integrated with Microsoft Visual Studio, so you can debug line by line (through breakpoints) and (b) good GUI support and you can even modify GUI as well by yourself and can add your own menus/protocols using XML.
Dear Manoj Yadav,
NS-3 is always a preferred choice. You can go for NS-3 rather than NS-2 (developed by same consortium). In NS-3 separate module/library for WAVE is incorporated. We are working NS-3 for past three years @ (Self Organized Networking Group), Vinton Network Lab, Department of ECE of Kongu Engineering College, Erode, Tamil Nadu. We are going to organize hands on training programme. If you are willing to work in NS-3 (Vanets), you read the pamphlet attached with the message. NS-3 is an open source simulator , where you can
add, modify or implement your protocol (no strings attached similar to Qualnet). We have also published our work in VANET (L-4, congestion control),
21-08-2017 | Issue 1/2018
A Feedback Aware Reliable Transport Protocol with Improved Window Increment Mechanism for Inter Vehicular Wireless Network
Journal:Wireless Personal Communications > Issue 1/2018
Authors:M. Joseph Auxilius Jude, V. C. Diniesh, M. Shivaranjani, R. Shanju
Currently the best tools are either OPNET or Tetcos NETSIM
NS-3 and NS-2 lacks a UI and has steeper learning curve due to need to learn scripting
Dear Manoj Yadav,
Prefer NS-3 (traffic model) and SUMO/ VanetMobiSim (mobility model).
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