INET 3.6.5

This release contains minor bug fixes and compatibility fixes for the OMNeT++ 5.4.1 release and for recent Linux distros. It requires OMNeT++ 5.3 or later.

General:

• Added missing measurement units for 0 values in NED and INI files
• NED files are now using fully qualified type names
• Added missing doParsimPacking/doParsimUnpacking in L3Address

Ethernet:

• Fixed 'EtherMAC swallows frames when PAUSE is engaged (#391)'
• Fixed 'Cannot abort PAUSE (LFC) before timeout (#390)'
  (author: Danushka Menikkumbura)

ieee802.11:

• Fixed ACK frame duration bug where the duration was incorrectly
  rounded up in seconds instead of microseconds for data fragment ACKs.

TCP:

• Bugfix: static variables were removed, but remained in header

SCTP:

• Set the DupTsn relative to the localDiffTSN

IPv6:

• Added constructors in AdvPrefix.

Visualizers:

• Removed dependence on ObjectLocatorNode as it was removed in recent
  versions of osgEarth

INET 4.1.0 (January 29, 2019)

This is a new minor stable release of the INET 4.x branch. It comes with some
backward incompatible changes, a few new features, a number of smaller improvements,
and many bug fixes. This version requires OMNeT++ 5.4.1 or later.

The backward incompatible changes are the following:

1. The module initialization stages have been refactored. All stages with numbers
   in their names (e.g. INITSTAGE_LINK_LAYER_2) have been removed, because their
   intended purpose was not clear, and they were often misused. Several new stages
   have been added to replace the removed stages. The new stages have names which
   express better the specific purposes they are used for (e.g. INITSTAGE_POWER,
   INITSTAGE_GROUP_MOBILITY, INITSTAGE_NETWORK_INTERFACE_CONFIGURATION).

   This change most likely results in compilation errors in simulation models
   which use the affected initialization stages. It may also cause runtime errors
   if the stage name has not been changed but its usage is slightly modified.

2. Individual protocol specific data structure fields of InterfaceEntry (e.g. the
   ipv4Data field with type Ipv4InterfaceData stores IP address and netmask) have
   been removed and replaced with a generic API. The new API allows storing any
   number of arbitrary protocol specific data structures in the network interface
   similarly to packet tags. All affected protocols have been updated.

   This change always results in compilation errors in affected simulation models.

3. The old ExtInterface module (used for emulation) has been split into several
   modules. There are separate modules for using simulated network interfaces from
   the host OS, and also for using host OS network interfaces from the simulation.
   The new external interfaces no longer rely on PCAP, they rather use host OS
   raw sockets and TUN/TAP interfaces. Besides ethernet, the new version also
   provides IEEE 802.11 network interface emulation. A new external UDP protocol
   module is also added, which allows INET applications to be tested unmodified
   on real networks using the UDP protocol of the host OS.

   This change results in runtime errors in simulations which use the modified
   models. Configuration of affected simulations have to be updated.

4. Replaced EulerAngles with Quaternion to represent orientation (and angular
   velocity, and angular acceleration) in mobility models to avoid gimbal lock
   and ambigous state representation. Euler angles are easy for human consumption
   but they are generally considered a bad idea for representing 3D orientation.

   This change always results in compilation errors in affected simulation models.

5. Moved MAC address parameters from MAC modules to the corresponding network
   interface modules (e.g. EtherMac -> EthernetInterface). The reason is that
   MAC address really belongs to the network interface and often management or
   other network interface submodules need access to it.

   This change results in runtime errors in simulations which use the modified
   parameters. Configuration of affected simulations have to be updated.

The backward compatible changes are the following:

6. Many applications have been extended with support for lifecycle operations.
   Applications can be started, stopped, and crashed individually using the same
   ScenarioManager script which is also used to control the lifecycle operations
   of network nodes. These applications also subclass from a common ApplicationBase.
   Similarly to applications, network interfaces also support lifecycle operations,
   they can be brought down and up using the ScenarioManager.

7. Two new protocol groups (for UDP and TCP) have been added which allow the
   identification of application protocols based on port numbers. The application
   protocols may not even be implemented in INET, yet they can still be identified
   (e.g. when using emulation) and displayed in the Qtenv packet log window.

8. The PacketPrinter has been extended with a new type column which contains
   the protocol specific packet type (e.g. ECHO_REQUEST for ICMPv4). The packet
   type is contributed by the protocol specific packet printer. This feature helps
   understanding packet logs in Qtenv. With the new version, the printer is also
   capable of providing a reasonably good enough packet name for packets received
   from external sources (e.g. an external network interface during emulation).

9. Modules that provide emulation support have been extended with a new host OS
   network namespace parameter. This feature allows, for example, running multiple
   linux BABEL daemons in their own network namespaces (with their own routing
   tables etc.) and connecting each one to the same simulation which provides
   mobility and wireless connectivity. For another example, it allows connecting
   multiple docker containers running in separate network namespaces again to
   the same simulation. Unfortunately, the network namespace feature is only
   available on Linux at the moment.

10. Added two new socket classes, EthernetSocket and Ieee8022LlcSocket, which
    allow applications to directly use the link layer protocols on a particular
    network interface. For example, an application can send and receive ethernet
    frames directly, bypassing network and transport layer protocols.

11. Added IEEE 802.1Q VLAN tag (C tag and S tag) support to ethernet interfaces.
    Virtual ethernet networks can be statically configured using ethernet interface
    parameters of switches and hosts. Additionally, all network nodes can have
    any number of virtual network interfaces which can be configured to request
    VLAN tagging. This feature allows using multiple different virtual networks
    on the same physical network on a per application basis.

12. Raphael Riebl contributed support for ether type discrimantion for IEEE 802.11p
    networks in the 5.9 GHz band. The new modules provide both IEEE 802.11 EPD and
    IEEE 802.11 LPD as required by the standard. The LLC module is automatically
    selected based on the opMode and band parameters.

13. Mani Amoozadeh contributed several new features and fixed quite a few bugs
    in BGP and OSPF wired routing protocols. Among others, BGP has been updated
    related to split horizon, multi-hop EGBP, network interface mode parameters,
    packet checksum calculation, packet serialization, and multiple additional
    parameters to turn on/off individual protocol features. Similarly, OSPF has
    also been updated related to BDR promotion, network interface mode parameters,
    packet checksum calculation, and packet serialization. He also validated the
    INET models by comparing simulation runs with the CISCO packet tracer tool
    for many important use cases.

14. Other notable changes:

• Updated a few mobility models to provide better parameterization for 3D.
• Added ClnsAddress and ClnsAddressType from ANSA project.
• Added a new antenna model for rotationally symmetric antenna lobes.
• Added linear and logarithmic antenna lobe visualization.
• Extended IPv4 network configuration with support for configuring isolated networks.
• Fixed several smaller issues related to 802.11 block acknowledgement and QoS recovery procedures.
• Numerous other bug fixes and small improvements.

INET 4.0 (June 29, 2018)

This is the first stable release of the new INET 4.x branch. All originally planned tasks have been completed. This version requires OMNeT++ 5.4.1 or later.

With the new INET 4.0 release, the development of the old INET 3.x branch is stopped. Users are strongly encouraged to use the new INET 4.0 version for new projects and also for migrating existing projects. Admittably, migration is not trivial, but there's an 'INET 4.0 Migration Guide' to help with the task under the 'doc/misc' folder.

The main changes of the new INET 4.0 major stable release are:

1. Packet API

   The INET Packet API has been completely redesigned to supports efficient
   construction, sharing, duplication, encapsulation, aggregation, fragmentation,
   and serialization of packets.

   The new Packet API also adds many other useful features such as a detailed
   packet printer, a packet dissector, a packet filter based on packet data,
   packet tags for cross-layer communication, region tags for attaching metadata
   to packet data, and queueing and buffering packet data.

   The new Packet API also makes implementing communication protocols easier. The
   resulting code looks more similar to the real world implementation. Supporting
   emulation is pretty much trivial when implementing communication protocols.

   For more details on how to use the new Packet API, see the 'INET Developer's Guide'.

2. Network node architecture

   The internal structure of network nodes has been changed considerably. With
   the new architecture, applications can directly talk to any protocol down to
   the link layer, and protocols don't have to deal with dispatching packets and
   commands to other protocols. Cross-layer communication is directly supported
   in both downward and upward directions.

   For more details on how to use the new architecture, see the 'INET User's Guide'.

3. Documentation

   The somewhat outdated 'INET Framework for OMNeT++ Manual' has been reworked
   and split into the 'INET User's Guide' and 'INET Developer's Guide'. Several
   new detailed showcases have been added and many have been updated, they are
   available on the INET website.

The highlights of this release since the last development release are:

1. Socket API

   The Socket API has been redesigned and uniformized. All sockets can be used
   with similar callback interfaces. All callback functions receive the socket
   object as a parameter to allow handling multiple sockets concurrently.

   New raw Ipv4Socket and Ipv6Socket classes have been added to directly access
   the IPv4 and IPv6 protocols from applications.

2. Module type parameters

   All string NED module parameters, which were used to specify submodule types,
   have been replaced with the standard OMNeT++ typename parameter. This reduces
   the confusion caused by having two different configuration options for the
   same task. The typename parameter is also simpler and more generic in the
   sense that it allows configuring the module type for submodule vector elements.

   The replacement of the EthernetInterface queueType and the Ieee80211Interface
   agentType parameters requires the applications which use them to be updated.
   The queueType parameter had effect on the dataQueueType of the EtherQosQueue,
   which is no longer true. The agentType parameter depended on the mgmtType
   parameter, which is also no longer true. These parameters must be set separately.

3. NED units

   With the new OMNeT++ 5.4 release, INET supports the automatic conversion of
   non-linear units such as dBm, dBW to W, dB to ratio, etc. All 0/0 and +-1/0
   parameter value assignments have been replaced with nan and +-inf respectively.

4. Various renames

   Renamed several modules, submodules, classes, interfaces, etc. to be consistent
   with the INET naming conventions:

   • GenericNetworkProtocol module -> NextHopForwarding

   • generic folder -> nexthop

   • gnp submodule -> nextHop

   • InterfaceEntry get/setNextHopProtocolData functions -> get/setNextHopData

   • Protocol::gnp global variable -> Protocol::nextHopForwarding

   • NextHopDatagram class -> NextHopForwardingHeader

   • RsvpRouter module -> RsvpMplsRouter

   • LdpRouter module -> LdpMplsRouter

   • Rsvp module -> RsvpTe.

   • rsvp_te folder -> rsvpte

   • Protoco::rsvp global variable -> rsvpte.

5. Packet error representation

   The physical layer error models have been extended with a corruption mode
   parameter. The available corruption modes are: packet, chunk, byte, or bit
   level. The parameter determines on what level the error model introduces
   errors into a packet.

   In many protocols, various corruption modes don't lead to different outcome.
   Nevertheless, this change allows implementing IEEE 802.11 A-MPDU aggregation
   with support to only dropping the individual subframes which are received
   incorrectly.

6. IEEE 802.11

   Thanks to Alfonso Ariza Quintana, the 802.11/ac (VHT PHY) modes have been
   added to physical layer. Futhermore, the necessary 5GHz bands with 20, 40,
   80, and 160 Mhz bandwidth have also been added.

   The 802.11 mode lookup mechanism has been extended with bandwidth and number
   of spatial streams parameters, and the mechanism has also been relaxed to
   allow specifying more already supported bitrates (e.g. 86.7 Mbps with 0.1 Mbps
   precision).

   Fixed bug when a packet was received from another Ap and sent up incorrectly.
   Fixed ACK frame duration bug reported by Raphael Elsner.
   Fixed exploded frame transmitter address in MsduDeaggregation.
   Fixed length field wrap around for large packets.
   Fixed center frequency calculation in Ieee80211ArithmeticalBand.

7. Emulation

   The whole emulation support, including the ExternalInterface compound module,
   the Ext simple module, and the corresponding cSocketRtScheduler have been
   redesigned and heavily refactored. The new C++ scheduler class is called
   RealTimeScheduler and it is completely independent of the external interfaces.

   The new scheduler still provides real time simulation execution, but it also
   allows for using the POSIX select mechanism to support I/O operations with
   file descriptors. The external interface hooks into this mechanism to read
   raw packets via PCAP. Futhermore, the new external interface implementation
   uses dedicated raw sockets to send packets.

8. Lifecycle and scenario management

   The LifecycleController module has been removed because the module did not
   have and is not expected to have any parameters in the future. Therefore the
   LifecycleController module is no longer needed in the network for the lifecycle
   operations to work. The corresponding LifecycleController C++ class with the
   actual functionality remains there.

   The ScenarioManager scripting has been extended with the following shortcuts
   for the lifecycle operations:

   • <shutdown module="hostA"/>
   • <startup module="hostA"/>
   • <crash module="hostA"/>

9. RIP

   Thanks to the contributions of Mani Amoozadeh the RIP protocol has been
   refactored to store the protocol specific route data in the routing table
   instead of an internal data structure. The protocol has also been extended
   with new hold-down timer and triggered update parameters.

   Fixed sending updates on interface which is down.

10. Other notable changes

    The Ethernet model has been extended with 200 Gbit and 400 Gbit modes.

    The antenna directional selectivity computation in wireless medium analog
    models has been fixed.

    Several missing protocol dissectors and protocol printers have been added.

    All protocol specific header serializers have been moved to the folder of their
    respective communication protocol.

    In order to suppor more recent OSG Earth versions, the osgEarth::ObjectLocatorNode
    has been replaced with GeoTransform and osg::PositionAttitudeTransform.

INET 3.99.3 (April 13, 2018)

This is planned to be the last development release of the upcoming INET-4.0 version.

All originally planned refactorings have been completed, and we don't expect too many
changes until the final version is released. This version requires OMNeT++ 5.3 or later.

The highlights of this release are:

1. Documentation

   The somewhat outdated 'INET Framework for OMNeT++ Manual' draft has been split
   into two documents. One is called the User's Guide and the other one is called
   the Developer's Guide. The reason for the split is that the two documents have
   different target audiences, and they focus on introducing different aspects of
   the INET Framework.

   The User's Guide is intended for users who are mainly interested in assembling
   simulations using the existing components provided by the INET Framework. In
   contrast, the Developer's Guide is intended for developers who are mainly
   interested in developing their own protocols as an addition to the INET
   Framework. Both guides are work in progress, but many parts have been added,
   deleted, and rewritten compared to the old manual.

2. Packet API

   The packet API has been finalized. Several Packet and Chunk functions have been
   renamed for better consistency and more clarity. Affected C++ class level and
   function level documentation has been updated.

   For more details, see the related patch at:
   cf00e51

3. Packet dissector

   The packet API has been extended with a new packet dissector API. The packet
   dissector analyzes a packet solely based on the assigned packet protocol and
   the data it contains. The analysis is done according to the protocol logic as
   opposed to the actual representation of the data. The packet dissector works
   similarly to a parser. Basically, it walks through each part (such as protocol
   headers) of a packet in order. For each part, it determines the corresponding
   protocol and the most specific representation for that protocol.

   The packet dissector is mostly implemented in the PacketDissector C++ class.
   It relies on small registered protocol-specific dissector classes such as the
   Ipv4ProtocolDissector. User defined protocols can register their own protocol
   dissector classes to extend the functionality of the generic packet dissector.

4. Packet filter

   Filtering packets based on the actual data they contain is a long time missing
   functionality of INET. With the help of the new packet dissector API, it is
   very simple to create such packet filters.

   In order to simplify filtering, INET provides a new generic expression-based
   packet filter implemented in the PacketFilter C++ class. The expression syntax
   is the same as other OMNeT++ expressions, and the data filter is matched against
   individual parts of the packet as found by the packet dissector. For example,
   the expression "inet::Ipv4Header and srcAddress(10.0.0.*)" matches all packets
   that contains an IPv4 header with a '10.0.0' source address prefix.

5. Packet printer

   Based on the new packet dissector, the INET packet printer has been reworked.
   The new packet printer is implemented in the PacketPrinter C++ class. It relies
   on small protocol specific printer classes to form the user readable string
   representation. User defined protocols can register their own protocol printer
   classes to extend the functionality of the generic packet printer.

   With the OMNeT++ 5.3 version the message printer API has been changed to provide
   support for ANSI escape sequences for styling, and for options. The new INET
   packet printer allows showing/hiding columns and control various printing
   features from Qtenv. The new packet printer provides the following columns in
   Qtenv: 'Source', 'Destination', 'Protocol', 'Length', and 'Info' similarly to
   the well-known Wireshark protocol analyzer. The info column for simple packets
   is assembled inside-out in terms of protocol nesting, but for more complicated
   packets (e.g. ones using aggregation) it is assembled left to right.

6. Packet tags

   With the OMNeT++ 5.3 version, the old experimental API for attaching tag objects
   to packets is no longer available. Meanwhile INET has been extended with a very
   similar, although not exactly source code compatible API.

   The most important consequence is that cMessage and cPacket instances cannot
   have tags attached any more. In order to make dispatching non-packet messages
   between protocols still possible, two new cMessage subclasses called Request
   and Indication have been introduced. Protocols send instances of said classes
   to request services from other protocols or indicate status changes to other
   protocols.

7. SCTP

   With this new release, SCTP, the last remaining protocol, has also been
   ported to the new packet API.

   Many thanks to Irene Rüngeler for her valuable contribution.

8. Packet drill

   The last remaining application has also been ported to the new packet API.
   This application is heavily used for testing UDP, TCP, and SCTP transport
   protocols. All tests under the packetdrill folder pass.

9. Mobility

   Throughout the mobility API and implementation, speed has been renamed to
   velocity where appropriate. The reason is that speed is generally considered
   a scalar quantity whereas velocity is considered a vector quantity.

   The documentation of orientation has been updated to clarify how exactly it
   is meant to be understood. As a somewhat related change, the double type of
   angles in mobility models and geographic positioning (longitude, latitude)
   has been replaced with compile-time checked C++ types called rad and deg for
   clarity.

   New mobility models have been added, some of which allow the combination of
   existing mobility models. The SuperpositioningMobility combines the trajectory
   of several other mobility modules using superposition. The AttachedMobility
   provides a mobility that is attached to another mobility at a given offset.

10. Various renames

    All network interfaces have been renamed to have 'Interface' suffix in their
    names. All signals having the old 'NF_' (obsolete NotificationBoard) prefix
    in their names have been renamed according to the new INET signal naming scheme.
    Moreover, many functions have been renamed (e.g. camel case) to use the INET
    C++ naming scheme.

11. Visualization

    Physical transmission medium, data link and physical link, network path, and
    packet drop visualizers have been extended with the new packet data filtering.
    This allows, for example, to configure several network path visualizers within
    an IntegratedMultiCanvasVisualizer to display the path of packets with certain
    destination addresses differently.

12. PCAP recording

    Similarly to visualization, PCAP recording has also been extended with the
    new packet data filtering. This allows recording only certain packets in a
    PCAP file, which results in drastically reduced file size and significantly
    increased performance.

13. Other notable changes

    The protocol registration C++ interface has been changed to provide better
    support for the message dispatching mechanism. The result is that protocols
    and MessageDispatcher modules can be connected in more flexible ways. In fact,
    MessageDispatchers now only have one gate vector to connect to, they learn
    where protocols are and act accordingly. Network nodes are free to connect
    protocols directly or by using one or several MessageDispatchers as they see
    fit.

    The physical environment ground model has been extended with a new OSG based
    OsgEarthGround model which uses the elevation data of the map. The ground models
    have been also extended with the computation of the ground normal vector.

    Some globally registered protocol identifiers (e.g. Protocol::ieee80211) have
    been split into separate PHY, MAC, and MGMT protocols to disambiguate packet
    parts for the packet dissector. This only affects the registered protocol
    identifiers, actual protocol implementations are unaffected.

    Several MSG file customizations (i.e. @Customize) have been refactored or
    eliminated altogether by using the new MSG compiler features of OMNeT++. The
    main purpose is to simplify MSG files, remove unnecessary C++ customizations,
    and to ease understanding and maintaining these files.

    Potential infinite loop in the GPSR MANET routing has been fixed.

INET 3.6.4 (March 21, 2018)

This release contains minor bug fixes and compatibility fixes for the
OMNeT++ 5.3 Preview 4 release. It requires OMNeT++ 5.1 or later.

General:

• Changed some module parameters from double to int.
• Corrected memory management issue in radio module.
• common: added intWithUnit() ned function.

Packet printer:

• made it compatible with the new message printer API in OMNeT++ 5.3

INET 3.99.2 (December 22, 2017)

This release is the next development snapshot of the upcoming INET-4.0 version.

The code is still work in progress, which means some details may change until the
final 4.0 version is released. This version requires OMNeT++ 5.3.

The highlights of this release are:

1. New MSG file format

   The new OMNeT++ 5.3 release contains a new version of the MSG compiler. The
   new MSG compiler comes with an updated MSG file syntax which provides several
   very useful improvements. The most notable one is the introduction of import
   statements. The new MSG compiler is not enabled by default in OMNeT++ 5.3 for
   backward compatibility.

   INET heavily relies on using MSG files, so we decided to switch to the new
   syntax. All MSG files have been updated resulting in much simpler content.

   The most notable MSG file changes are:

   • added import statements
   • switched to proper pointer support
   • deleted early declarations
   • moved several properties from fields to types
   • removed many cplusplus blocks
   • removed many unnecessary typedefs

2. Renamed camel case for abbreviations

   Many INET protocol implementations use several capitalized abbreviations to
   shorten long technical terms. Often these abbreviations are concatenated
   resulting in hardly understandable sequence of capital letters. Some notable
   examples are: AODVRERR, OSPFLSA, PIMDM, etc. Many protocol implementations
   also use identifiers which concatenate camel case words with capitalized
   abbreviations making understanding even more difficult. Some notable examples
   are: TCPSACKRexmitQueue, RTCPSDESPacket, OSPFDDOptions, etc.

   We decided to use a generic camel case naming scheme for the identifiers in
   INET. The most important change is that capitalized abbreviations are simply
   treated as words. Using a generic naming scheme makes INET look more consistent.
   All C++ class names, NED module names, packet class names, etc. have been
   updated according to the new naming scheme.

3. Fixed misnomers

   Some misnomers have been fixed to avoid confusion and to better communicate
   the intended goal and behavior of the affected components.

   The most notable renamed C++ classes, modules, and related packet headers are:

   • Csma -> Ieee802154Mac
     This rename was brought up at the 4th OMNeT++ Community Summit. The main
     reason is that the name has to express that this module is intended to
     implement a specific standard (IEEE 802.15.4) as opposed to some generic
     hypothetical protocol. Otherwise maintainers are free to change the code
     however they see fit.

   • BMacLayer -> BMac

   • LMacLayer -> LMac
     These renames simply remove an unnecessary word that hardly adds anything
     to the meaning. The word layer is not used anywhere else in INET modules,
     this was a leftover after migrating the protocols from MiXiM.

   • IdealMac -> AckingMac
     This rename is admitting that this MAC protocol is not ideal in any way.
     In fact, this trivial MAC protocol isn't a real medium access protocol at
     all. This is primarily useful for sitations where the MAC protocol is not
     to be simulated in detail. It doesn't provide carrier sense mechanism,
     collision avoidance, or collision detection. The only MAC feature it provides
     is optional out of bound acknowledgement, hence the name.

   • IdealRadio -> UnitDiskRadio
     This rename is simply admitting the fact that this radio implements the
     well known unit disk radio model.

   There are several other related C++ classes and NED modules which have also
   been renamed to follow the above renames. For example, IdealRadioMedium ->
   UnitDiskRadioMedium, etc.

4. New models

   Some existing MAC protocols didn't have a predefined wireless interface module
   which may prevented users to find out how to use them.

   • BNic
     This is a wireless interface which uses BMac and ApskScalarRadio by default.

   • LNic
     This is a wireless interface which uses LMac and ApskScalarRadio by default.

   • ShortcutMac
     This module implements a simple shortcut to peer MAC protocol that completely
     bypasses the physical layer.

   • ShortcutRadio
     This module implements a simple shortcut to peer radio protocol that completely
     bypasses the physical medium.

5. Region Tags

   The INET packet API has been extended with region tags. The new region tags
   API is provided by chunks, therefore it's available in packets, queues, and
   buffers. This is an entirely new API that is completely independent of the
   already provided packet tags API.

   Packet tags allow attaching meta information to a packet as a whole. They are
   used inside network nodes to pass information between protocols residing in
   different layers (cross-layer communication). Packet tags don't change when
   new headers are inserted into packets, or when existing headers are removed.

   As opposed to packet tags, region tags allow attaching meta information to a
   region of data designated by an offset and a length. The attached information
   sticks to that data part independently of how the data is stored. Region tags
   are also maintained if the data is queued, buffered, fragmented, or aggregated.

   For example, region tags can be very simply used to measure end to end delay
   in a TCP application. The source application has to attach a creation time
   region tag with the current simulation time to the data before sending it down
   using the TCP socket. The destination application has to query the creation time
   region tag for the data it just received from the TCP socket. The application
   gets a list of creation time region tags in response. Each tag specifies the
   timestamp and the part for which it is attached to. The important thing to note
   here is that all the underlying protocols (including but not limited to TCP,
   IPv4, IEEE 802.11, etc.) may queue, buffer, fragment, aggregate data as they
   see fit. Nevertheless, the region tag API maintains the attached tags as if
   they were individually attached to every single bit. Even if the individual
   subparts are routed using alternative routes in the network.

6. Chunk immutability

   The Packet, ChunkQueue, and ChunkBuffer C++ classes have been changed to
   automatically mark inserted chunks as immutable. Prior to this change it was
   the caller's responsibility to do so, which turned out to be unnecessary.
   With this change the pushHeader and pushTrailer functions have been removed
   from the API, and they have been replaced with insertHeader and insertTrailer
   respectively.

7. Packet drop signals

   All packet drop related OMNeT++ signals have been replaced with the generic
   packetDrop signal. The generic signal always carries a details object with it,
   which describes the packet drop reason and some other data such as a retry
   limit. The main reason for this change is to allow the packet drop visualizer
   to display all packet drops independently of the source and reason.

8. Data link visualization

   The data link activity visualization has been extended with a new feature that
   determines what level of activity is displayed. The supported activity levels
   are the following:

   • service
     The service level data link activity means that arrows are displayed for
     packets going in at the top of the link layer in the source node and going
     out at the top of the link layer in the destination node. (all SDUs)

   • peer
     The peer level data link activity means that arrows are displayed for
     packets processed inside the link layer in the source node and processed
     inside the link layer in the destination node.

   • protocol
     The protocol level data link activity means that arrows are displayed for
     packets going out at the bottom of link layer in the source node and going
     in at the bottom of the link layer in the destination node. (all PDUs)

9. IEEE 802.11 model

   The model has been changed with respect to packet names for A-MSDU aggregated
   and fragmentated packets. Aggregate packets have a name that is a concatenation
   of the names of all the aggregated packets. Fragment packets have a name that
   contains the name of the original packet plus the fragment index. In both cases,
   the restored packets (deaggregated or defragmented) at the other end have their
   names restored.

INET 3.6.3 (December 22, 2017)

This release contains minor bug fixes and compatibility fixes for the final OMNeT++ 5.3 Preview 1 release. It requires OMNeT++ 5.1 or later.

TCP:

• Fixed TCP/IP Checksum calculation with odd lengths.

SCTP:

• Fixed a retransmission bug where the transmission counter was not
  advanced when the data was retransmitted due to timeout.
• Fixed a bug when fast recovery was active and the cumulative TSN
  advanced, the miss indications were not increased.

Packetdrill:

• The counting of Gap Reports was fixed.
• Added a new test to test fast Retransmissions.

Ieee802154NarrowbandScalarRadio:

• The bandwidth was not correctly claculated, leading to incorrect channel allocation
• The PHY header was calculated wrong

APSKScalarReceiver:

• Fixed sensitivity bug in APSKScalarReceiver found by Tobias Thiel

INET 3.99.1 (November 17, 2017)

This release is the second development snapshot of the upcoming INET-4.0 version.

The code is still work in progress, which means some details may change until the
final 4.0 version is released. At the moment, it requires a modified version of
OMNeT++ 5.1 or 5.2. The modification is distributed as a patch file in the
'misc/patch' folder.

The highlights of this release are:

1. General

• Dropped obsolete run scripts for individual simulations. The run scripts are
  replaced by a setenv script in the INET installation and separate inet scripts
  in the bin folder. Run 'setenv' once from the shell to setup the environment
  variables, and run 'inet', 'inet_release' or 'inet_dbg' from the simulation
  directory.
• Removed compatibility macros required for OMNeT++ 4.x builds. This new INET
  version doesn't build with OMNeT++ 4.x versions.
• Renamed the byte and bit C++ units to B and b respectively. The new names
  were selected to be conformant with the IEC & IEEE unit conventions.
• Fixed several memory leaks and other minor bugs.

2. Shared pointer

• Added aliases for std::shared_ptr, std::make_shared, std::dynamic_pointer_cast,
  etc. to support replacing the shared pointer implementation used by the new
  Packet API.
• Added a new shared pointer implementation (from Boost) called IntrusivePtr.
  The new implementation uses only 1 counter (no weak counter) that is directly
  added to the shared object using inheritance (thus intrusive). This shared
  pointer is not thread safe, so it doesn't use atomic operations to increment
  and decrement counters, but generally that isn't a requirement for simulation.
  According to speed measurements (see tests/speed folder) the release builds
  run 5-10% faster.

3. CRC handling

• CRC insertion and validation code has been refactored and adapted to the new
  Packet API. This change affects UDP, TCP, IPv4, IPv6, ICMPv4, ICMPv6, Ethernet,
  and IEEE 802.11. The protocol modules have a parameter to control CRC handling.
  They support different CRC operation modes: disabled, declared, and computed.
  Either the disabled (if supported by the protocol) or the computed mode must
  be selected if packets are recorded in a PCAP file.

4. Ethernet

• Refactored physical layer packet representation and processing
• Cleaned up MSG files defining ethernet PHY and MAC frames and headers.

5. IEEE 802.2

• Renamed the global C++ protocol variable to Protocol::ieee8022, and the global
  C++ protocol group variable to ProtocolGroup::ieee8022protocol.
• Fixed handling incoming packets with bit errors.

6. IEEE 802.11

• Revived the FCS computation and verification. The FCS computation is optional,
  you can enable it using the 'fcsMode' parameter of the Ieee80211Mac.
• Fixed rate selection mechanism for control response frames. They must be sent
  with a mandatory rate that is not faster than the rate of the packet for which
  they are a response. If the received packet was not sent with a mandatory rate,
  then they were sent with the highest mandatory rate.
• Changed 802.11 OFDM error models with respect to the service field. The service
  field is part of the PHY header in terms of bits, but it's sent in the data part
  in terms of symbols.
• Fixed PHY header length in Ieee80211Radio. Added separate PHY chunks and PHY
  padding bits for completeness. This change doesn't affect the signal duration,
  because it was alrady correctly computed.
• Added descriptors for several parts for signals, transmissions, modes, bands,
  channels, etc. The new descriptors allow inspecting of the signal meta data
  in the runtime user interface.
• Extended 802.11 layered error model for packet level simulation.

7. CsmaCa

• Added 'fcsMode' parameter and FCS computation and verification.
• Changed headerLength and ackLength to the minimum value, any additional length
  specified is represented by a separate ByteCount chunk.
• Fixed error caused by receiving an ACK frame with bit errors.
• Fixed state machine when receiving unexpected frames while trying to transmit one.

8. Netfilter

• Refactored netfilter hooks so that the new interface functions only get the
  datagram as a parameter. Hook implementations should query and modify the
  packet and/or the attached tags. For example, setting the outgoing interface
  can be done by attaching an InterfaceReq tag.

9. Network interface

• Added the InterfaceEntry class used by InterfaceTable to the corresponding
  NIC modules, because they represent the same network interface. All network
  interface modules are required to have a @Class(InterfaceEntry) property in
  their NED definition. This change also allows one to see the internal state
  of a network interface just by selecting its submodule in the runtime user
  interface.

10. Radio

• Extracted a separate IAntennaGain interface from the IAntenna interface. This
  change allows the transmissions to carry directional selectivity even if the
  transmitter radio gets destroyed during the propagation of the signal.
• Changed transmitter lookup to use radio identifier instead of internal pointer
  to fix crashes when the condition described above occurs.
• Separated simsignals for transmission/reception from radio signal departure/arrival.
  This allows differentiating signals at the receiver which are actually attempted
  to be received as opposed to simply arriving there.

11. MANET routing

• Adapted all MANET routing protocols (AODV, DYMO, and GPSR) to the refactored
  INetfilter hook interface. Routing protocols query and modify the packet and/or
  the attached tags as they need.

12. TCP

• Removed obsolete TCP socket 'dataTransferMode' parameter from all implementations.
  Applications don't have to decide upfront between sending byte count based, field
  based, or raw bytes based packets. With the new API, applications can send any
  combination of the above over the same connection.

13. Visualizer

• Added a new set of integrated visualizer modules called IntegratedMultiVisualizer,
  IntegratedMultiCanvasVisualizer, and IntegratedMultiOsgVisualizer. These modules
  contain a submodule vector of all special purpose visualizers inside as opposed
  to a single instance. This change allows, for example, one to easily configure
  several visualizers to display various aspects of the simulation differently.

INET 3.6.2 (October 2, 2017)

This release contains minor bug fixes and compatibility fixes for the final
OMNeT++ 5.2 release. It requires OMNeT++ 5.1 or later.

• Tcp: Fixed incorrect connection pointer in rexmitQueue.
• Edcaf: Fixed aifs calculation for customised aifsn.
• Visualization: parameter rename
• inet_featuretool: Removed warning when treating a missing feature in the state files as default.
• Updated showcases and tutorials.
• Various fixes to eliminate warnings on clang 4 and gcc 7.x.

INET 3.99.0 (August 24, 2017)

This release is the first development snapshot of the upcoming INET-4.0 version.
It contains a number of non-trivial backward incompatible changes compared to the
INET 3.x releases. These changes may require considerable efforts from INET users
to migrate their projects and protocols. The migration may affect INI files, NED
files, and C++ code. Please refer to the INET-4.0 migration guide under 'doc/misc/'
for further details.

The code is still work in progress, which means some details may change until the
final 4.0 version is released. At the moment, it requires a modified version of
OMNeT++ 5.1 or 5.2. The modification is distributed as a patch file in the
'misc/patch' folder.

The highlights of this release are:

1. Redesigned network node architecture

   The internal structure of network nodes has been changed considerably. These
   changes have profound effects on how applications are using protocols, and
   also on how protocols communicate with each other.

   With the new architecture, applications are able to use multiple protocols
   simultaneously, even if the protocols are part of different protocol layers.
   For example, in the old model it was impossible for a StandardHost application
   to use TCP and UDP protocols at the same time. This old restriction has been
   eliminated. Applications can now talk to any protocol (or several protocols),
   even several layers below. The dispatch mechanism necessary for that is now
   built into the new network node architecture.

   Furthermore, protocols don't have to deal with dispatching packets to other
   protocols or applications any more. In the old architecture, many protocols
   (e.g. IP) implemented their own mechanisms to communicate with multiple
   protocols/applications. In the new network node architecture this issue is
   solved by the dispatching mechanism, and protocols don't need to implement
   their own dispatching.

   The main component of the new network node architecture is the so-called
   MessageDispatcher module type. Such modules are responsible for directing
   packets from one protocol to the other and also between applications and
   protocols. Most often, MessageDispatcher modules are displayed as horizontal
   lines between protocol layers inside the network nodes. Protocols and
   applications connect to the dispatcher module directly above and below them.
   Dispatchers do not need to be configured because they learn about connected
   protocols/application at runtime.

   Please refer to the 'src/inet/node/base' and 'src/inet/node/inet' folders for
   more details.

2. Introduction of packet tags

   Packets no longer carry control info data structures while being passed around
   in a network node. They have a set of so-called packet tags attached instead.
   A packet tag is usually a very small data structure that focuses on a single
   parameterization aspect of one or more protocols. For example, a MacAddressReq
   tag specifies the requested transmitter and receiver MAC addresses for a MAC
   protocol.

   In general, packet tags come in three flavors: requests (top down), indications
   (bottom up), and plain tags (meta data). The naming convention for packet tags
   is to use the Req, Ind, or Tag suffix respectively. Tags are usually defined
   in MSG files, so that they can be inspected in the runtime environment.

   Tags can pass through protocol layers and reach far away from the originator
   protocol in both the downward and upward direction. This allows protocols to
   implement mechanisms that depend on meta data that is not directly present in
   a packet. For example, a wireless routing protocol could make more informed
   decisions when building the routing table by using the SignalPowerInd tag
   attached by the physical layer. Similarly, an application could attach an
   InterfaceReq to a packet in order to instruct the routing protocol to use a
   particular outgoing interface.

   The old control info data structures that were used with packets are no longer
   available. They have been split into several packet tags. Other control info
   data structures that were used with commands are left unchanged. All related
   protocols have been updated to use the new packet tags. New tags have also
   been introduced which don't have a counterpart in the old data structures.

   Please refer to the MSG files with the 'Tag.msg' suffix for more details.

3. Introduction of flat packets

   A new packet API is introduced that supports efficient construction, sharing,
   duplication, encapsulation, aggregation, fragmentation and serialization. The
   new API also supports dual representation, packet data can be accessed both as
   raw bytes and as objects.

   The new API contains two layers, the lower layer focuses on the representation
   of data. The primary building block of the lower layer is the Chunk class and
   its subclasses. The upper layer builds on top of this and provides the typical
   packet, queue and buffer abstractions used by protocols.

   Nearly all protocols (except SCTP) have been changed to use the new packet API.
   This includes TCP, UDP, IPv4, IPv6, AODV, OSPF, RIP, MPLS, Ethernet, PPP,
   802.11, etc. Due to the flat nature of the new packet data structure, all old
   packet data structures (subclasses of cPacket) have been replaced with chunks
   (subclasses of FieldChunk).

   The various old TCP transfer mode parameters which were used to distinguish
   between communicating with simple byte counts, objects, or byte streams are
   obsolete. Applications and protocols are free to use any kind of chunk in any
   combination. Other protocols will be able to handle such packets transparently
   using the new API.

   Furthermore, all old packet serializer classes have been changed to integrate
   with the new packet API. This allows the transparent processing of packets
   by protocols independently whether they are actually represented as a sequence
   of bytes or as a sequence of field based chunks.

   NOTE: SCTP has not been ported yet to the new architeture and is currently
   excluded from the build.

   Please refer to the 'src/inet/common/packet' and 'test/packet' folders for
   more details.

4. The new implementation has been extensibly tested. We used fingerprint tests
   after each change to ensure that all protocol behaviors have been preserved.