User Guide

SimLab User Guide is divided into two main sections:

Demo Quickstart: a short tutorial introducing the SimLab workflow
SimLab Workflow Phases: more specific information on different phases (Design, Monitor, Analyze and Visualize) of the SimLab workflow.

Demo Quickstart

In this tutorial, we'll introduce the SimLab workflow by going through the steps of designing, monitoring and analyzing a simulation campaign. Tutorial has the following steps:

Login to SimLab
Design a Campaign
Run Campaign and Monitor Progress
Analyze Campaign Results

Login to SimLab

With your browser, navigate to https://demo.magistersimlab.com and log in with your credentials.

Design a Campaign

Once logged in, you are taken to the Home in which SimLab greets you welcome. The Home view shortly introduces the logical parts (or phases) of SimLab workflow which are Design, Simulate, Analyze and Visualize.

Below the workflow boxes you'll see your simulation campaigns with their statuses. You'll notice in the image below that a couple of example campaigns have been created beforehand, with some of them having been run already.

Click Design to start the design of a simulation campaign.

Create a New Campaign

In Step 1 of Design phase, You'll create a new campaign from a campaign template. C-DReAM and the NGSO template is used as an example.

Click Add new campaign in the upper right corner to open the campaign creation dialog.

Select Campaign template.

Write anything as the campaign name and select C-DReAM NGSO generic as the campaign template. Note that the version number of the template might differ from the image below. Campaign templates define base values for specific simulation use cases and are to be later customized for more specific simulation cases.

After selecting the campaign template, template parameters are visible below the template selection box. Click Create to confirm campaign creation.

Now you are back at Step 1 of the Design phase, with the newly created campaign selected.

From the lower right corner of the screen (or from the top 1-2-3 navigation), Click Parameters to navigate to Step 2 Parameters.

Edit Parameters

Simulation parameters are divided into different categories based on their purpose. The categories are shown in the top left corner of the table.

Click Common to view the parameters in that category.

Depending on the type of the parameter, a certain control is used to modify the parameter value(s). The control can be e.g.

on-off slider, with option "both" for creating one simulation for true value and one for the false value;
selection list with checkboxes; and
text box

In case you would select multiple values for a single parameter, all combinations of parameter values are created as separate simulations. From these, you can later select which combinations are to be executed (see section Simulate).

Parameters with a free-form text input incorporate validation to prevent the input of faulty values. Nevertheless, note that simulation campaign parameter editing is to be done with care. A parameter can have dependencies and misconfiguring it (or the dependent parameters) can cause simulations to fail.

Let's add a few beam hopping slots. The default simulation DL beam hopping slot count is 100

Insert values 50 and 20 by clicking Add just below the line which shows the value 100.

Now the campaign aero test is configured to have three (3) simulations with varying beam hopping slot counts.

Click Launch in the bottom right corner of the screen to move to the launch tab.

Run Campaign and Monitor Progress

In the previous step, a campaign with three simulations was configured.

Make sure all simulations are selected as shown in the picture and click the Run button in the bottom. A confirmation dialog appears. Click Run to confirm.

After confirming, you are automatically routed to the Monitor view to see the progress of the simulation campaign. Click the expand button for the row for the campaign to expand it. You'll see that the simulations are either in queued, preparing or running state.

As cloud resources are being prepared for the simulation run, there can be a delay of around five minutes before the simulations start to run.

Progress of individual simulations is tracked by progress bars. In addition to the progress of the simulation run, there are preparation and finalizing steps for each simulation.

Note that at this stage, it would be possible to cancel the campaign or simulation by clicking the control on the right side of the table row.

Once the campaign has completed, you can utilize the automatic plotting feature to plot all results of the campaign with one click. On the right side of the screen on the row of the campaign, click the analytics icon to auto-plot the results.

You are routed to the Analyze view, where the next phase of SimLab workflow, i.e., analysis of simulation statistics, takes place. Let's continue from there in the next section.

Analyze Campaign Results

The Analyze phase of SimLab workflow entails detailed analysis of simulation statistics (Analyze) as well as visual representation of simulations (Visualization). You can add and remove individual statistics from the view, and clear to view altogether.

Modifying Statistics

Click the Pen icon on any of the statistic figures to modify figure properties, such as x and y-axis titles, legend text and result colors.

If you want to hide a result from a figure, Click on the corresponding result in the figure legend. Click again to show the hidden result. Note that this will not work if smart plotting is enabled in the figure settings.

Adding and Removing Statistics

From the bottom of the view, you can add more statistics to the view. It's possible to add statistic figures from other campaigns as well.

Click the Graph icon on the bottom left to open the Add Statistics dialog. Then select a simulation and result of your choosing to be added to the view.

In the image below, the newly added statistic is shown on the left side.

Remove a figure by clicking the trash can icon in the upper right corner of the figure. Clear the view by clicking the trash can button at the bottom of the view. After the deletion of all statistics, the view is empty as shown in the image below.

Visualize a Simulation

Click Visualize on the navigation panel to the left. This opens a campaign and simulation selection. Select the campaign you run and any simulation to open the 3D visualization for viewing.

To start the visualization and view satellite statistics let's do a couple of small adjustments:

adjust the slider in the lower left corner of the 3D view to have around 0.2x speed
select a satellite by double clicking
zoom away a bit (adjust as you see fit)
from the cog menu on the left side of the screen, you may change beam transparency and enable tracked node path
click on the play button in the lower left corner

As a result, you'll likely see a similar view as the image below

Also note that by holding the left mouse button and moving the cursor around, you can rotate the view:

This concludes the tutorial. Thanks for participating!

SimLab Workflow Steps in Detail

Below, the main features of SimLab are outlined per workflow phase.

Design

Step 1: Campaign

The campaign table shows the name, creation date, simulator, and campaign template related to the campaign, and also whether the campaign is currently selected or not
The design of a new campaign is based on a campaign template, which corresponds to a use case, or on a previously existing campaign
Campaign templates have version numbers. In addition to bug fixes, newer versions may provide additional parameters to customize and more statistics to view as results
A previously run campaign cannot be re-run. Instead, one needs to create a new campaign based on the existing one.
Click a campaign row to show the parameters of the campaign
The campaign name can be modified from the Pen icon
The campaign can be deleted from the trash can icon
One can proceed to the next step only if a campaign is selected

Step 2: Parameters

Parameters have tooltips that give a more detailed explanation of them to aid in understanding their use. In addition, being familiar with the simulator in use (and computer network system simulation in general) can further help in the configuration of parameters.
For certain parameters, there is an on-off slider and an associated checkbox. Three possible values exist: on, off, and both. The last option means that two simulations are defined for the campaign which have the values of true and false accordingly.
All parameters can be reset, or just one parameter at a time. Resetting the values resets them to the default of the use case in question, i.e., the default value of the campaign template the campaign is based on, or the preset value if one has been selected. Note that the default value may differ for different use cases, for instance a parameter value can be on or off after the reset (the default value of the campaign template).
If multiple values are configured for multiple parameters, all possible combinations of parameters are formed. Later in the Launch step of the Simulate phase, the user can select which simulations are run for the campaign.
Care needs to be taken to configure all required parameters properly. Changing the value of a single parameter can also pose the requirement to change the value of multiple other parameters accordingly, for the configuration to make sense. Disabling a parameter may make multiple other parameters obsolete.
Some parameters highly influence the outcome of simulation(s), e.g. may enable or disable the production of certain types of simulation statistics.

Simulate

In Launch, the user selects the simulations (from all possible combinations) which are executed by SimLab. Once the campaign run is started, the same campaign cannot be re-run with different simulations.
In Monitor, the campaign row is expandable and clicking the expand button shows the simulations of the campaign. Each simulation has a set of parameters, start time, end time, status and result. Progress bars are shown when the simulation has either running or finalizing as its status.
The result of a simulation is either success or failure. The result of a campaign can be either success, failure or partial failure, the last option indicating that not all simulations of the campaign completed successfully.
The controls on the right side of the row can be used to automatically plot campaign and simulation results
When a simulation campaign is started, a delay of approximately five minutes can occur. This is due to the elastic resources for the simulation campaign run being prepared on demand in the background. If a user runs multiple campaigns in a row, the resources are already there and a delay should not be experienced in campaigns other than the first one.

Analyze

The user can save or discard a report with statistics added in the Analyze view
The statistics of a simulation are produced only if the Enable statistics option in the Launch view is selected
Statistics can be added one by one, or in batch using statistic figure templates (SFTs) (all or selected simulations of a campaign)
Statistics from multiple campaigns can be added to the view, but they need to be added one after the other (one dialog for each campaign).
Depending on the parameter configuration, the selection of statistics is available. Some statistics may have infinite values and are thus not presented in figures (NaN or -NaN as text data).
A figure can be customized to some extent. Figure and axis titles (x and y) are customizable as well as the legend text and graph colors. Individual results can be hidden from a figure by clicking the result name in the legend, and hidden results shown by clicking the result name in the legend again.
Several statistic types, e.g., CDF, scalar and map, are supported by SimLab.
Figures can be removed from the view one by one, or all at once by clicking the delete button at the bottom of the view.
Figures are shown in two columns and auto-scale to the screen size, depending on the zoom level (see image below).

Visualize

The visualization of simulations is shown one at a time. The user selects the campaign and simulation to view.
The visualization of a simulation is produced only if the Enable visualization option is selected in the Launch view.
When a visualization is run, statistics of individual nodes (e.g. satellites) can be observed in a figure, which is enabled by tracking a certain entity (upper left corner cog settings)
The user can increase the relative size of the visualization window by zooming out (see image below).

Settings

In SimLab Settings, you can switch between the light (default) and dark color themes.

You can also configure default the statistic figure template (SFT) used per campaign template. The figures are then plotted according to this configuration, when the user auto-plots campaign or simulation statistics in the Monitor view. In the Analyze view, this configuration is used as the default selection in SFT selection lists.

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