Phrase based browsing for simulation traces of network protocols

Most discrete event simulation frameworks are able to output simulation runs as a trace. The network simulator 2 (NS2) is a prominent example that does so to decouple generation of dynamic behavior from its evaluation. If a modeler is interested in the specific details and confronted with lengthy traces from simulation runs, support is needed to identify relevant pieces of information. In this paper, we present a new phrase-based browser that has its roots in information retrieval, language acquisition and text compression which is refined to work with trace data derived from simulation models. The browser is a new navigation feature of Traviando, a trace visualizer and analyzer for simulation traces. The browsing technique allows a modeler to investigate particular patterns seen in a trace, that may be of interest due to their frequent or rare occurrence. We demonstrate how this approach applies to traces generated with NS2.