Hello Phenix, Agent here means the TCP or UDP agent (Transport layer) to which a data source (like CBR or FTP) is connected. So the Agent represents the source of the data that is being injected into the network, and also represents the final destination to which the data is delivered at the destination node.
Router represents the routing-agent (AODV in your example). So, if you have a network of 100 nodes that uses AODV for routing, and only two nodes are communicating with each other using FTP over TCP. Then all the nodes will have the Router (Agent/AODV) but only two nodes will have the Agent (Agent/TCP & Agent/TCPSink). Take a look at Figure 16.1 in the NS2-manual, it expalins that structure of the wireless node and how the Agent (Src/Sink) is connected with the Router (RTagent) If you enable both -agentTrace and -routerTrace, then in the trace file you will see that the new data is being sent from the AGT (Agent) and has the type TCP or CBR and is received by the RTR (Routing Agent) in the same node. Then the RTR decides how to handle the data depending on what type of routing agent it is (AODV, DSDV, DSR ... etc ). Hope this explains it. On Sat, Dec 20, 2008 at 9:02 AM, Phenix <phenix...@hhu.edu.cn> wrote: > > Hi guys, > > Recently I'm rather puzzled about Agent and Router in NS-2. > Take AODV for example, it is a kind of route protocol, meanwhile it's > a kind of agent. Are agent and router equivalent? > > And also, both agent and router have respective trace switch, > -agentTrace and -routerTrace. Which one should I use when evaluating > my algorithm ? > > Wish someone can give me some explains. Thanks in advance. > > Regards, > Phenix > > -- Waleed Tuffaha.