All organizations · GSoC 2026 · Science and medicine

The ns-3 Network Simulator Project

ns-3 is a simulation tool for computer networks.

Are you interested in contributing to a widely-used performance evaluation tool for computer networking research? ns-3 is a *discrete-event, packet-level network simulator* with an emphasis on networking research and education. Users of ns-3 can construct simulations of computer networks using models of traffic generators, protocols such as TCP/IP, and devices and channels such as Wi-Fi and LTE, and analyze or visualize the results. Simulation plays a vital role in the research and education process, because of the ability for simulations to obtain reproducible results (particularly for wireless protocol design), scale to large networks, and study systems that have not yet been implemented. A particular emphasis in ns-3 is a high degree of realism in the models (including frameworks for using real application and kernel code) and integration of the tool with virtual machine environments and testbeds. Very large scale simulations are possible; simulations of hundreds of millions of nodes have been published. ns-3 has been in development since 2005 and has been making regular releases since June 2008. The simulator is written in C++, with bindings for Python scripting, and uses the …

  • python
  • django
  • c++
  • computer networking
  • network simulation

Project ideas

16 ideas on its 2026 ideas page; of the 16 that state a difficulty: 4 easy, 10 medium, 2 hard. Sizes: 2 medium, 1 large. 11 mentors named.

  1. Flent Application API in ns-3 medium
  2. Internet routing refactoring easy
  3. Ping and TracerouteV4 enhancements easy
  4. 6LoWPAN mesh-under routing enhancements easy
  5. 6LoWPAN neighbor discovery protocol easy
  6. OLLA Link Adaptation for 5G-LENA medium medium
  7. Enabling 5G NR examples visualization medium
  8. AODVv2 Protocol enhancements medium
  9. Integration of 3GPP Release-19 Features into the ns-3 3GPP Model and 5G-LENA medium
  10. Multi-Band Support and Carrier Selection in 5G-LENA for FR3 CA medium
  11. Spectrum Sharing Support for 5G-LENA and ns-3 medium
  12. Mesh Link Establishment (MLE) protocol hard
  13. Energy Consumption Modeling and Power-Aware Extensions for 5G-LENA medium medium
  14. 5G NR module integration with ns-3-ai large medium
  15. Linux-like CAKE queue discipline for ns-3 hard
  16. Switched Ethernet medium

Read the ideas page. Ideas are for scope reference; never copy one into a proposal.

History

In GSoC since 2017, 10 years. Projects per year: '17: 5, '18: 5, '19: 4, '20: 4, '21: 3, '22: 2, '23: 3, '24: 3, '25: 4, '26: 5.

On GitHub

No GitHub organization found in its official listing.

Links and channels

go deeper in your terminal
git-into-gsoc org "The ns-3 Network Simulator Project" --shortlist
git-into-gsoc repos "The ns-3 Network Simulator Project"
git-into-gsoc issues --org "The ns-3 Network Simulator Project"
or ask your assistant:
"Which The ns-3 Network Simulator Project repositories merge
newcomers' pull requests, and which beginner
issues are still free?"

Those commands read live data: which repositories merge outside pull requests, and which beginner issues nobody has claimed. Install in two minutes.