Installation Guide: NS3 Gym (Reinforcement Learning) on Ubuntu

If you're diving into reinforcement learning (RL) simulations using NS-3 and OpenGym, this step-by-step guide is exactly what you need. In this tutorial, we will walk you through the installation process of NS3-Gym (also known as OpenGym) with NS-3.40 on Ubuntu 24.04.

Whether you're a researcher, student, or developer working on AI-driven network simulation, this guide will help you get started with minimal errors.

Complete installation is available in the following Video

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✅ System Requirements

• Operating System: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS

• Network Simulator: ns-allinone-3.40

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🛠️ Step 1: Install All Required Dependencies

Open your terminal and execute the following commands one by one:

$ sudo apt update

$ sudo apt install g++ python3 cmake ninja-build git gir1.2-goocanvas-2.0 python3-gi python3-gi-cairo python3-pygraphviz gir1.2-gtk-3.0 ipython3 tcpdump wireshark sqlite3 libsqlite3-dev qtbase5-dev qtchooser qt5-qmake qtbase5-dev-tools openmpi-bin openmpi-common openmpi-doc libopenmpi-dev doxygen graphviz imagemagick python3-sphinx dia imagemagick texlive dvipng latexmk texlive-extra-utils texlive-latex-extra texlive-font-utils libeigen3-dev gsl-bin libgsl-dev libgslcblas0 libxml2 libxml2-dev libgtk-3-dev lxc-utils lxc-templates vtun uml-utilities ebtables bridge-utils libxml2 libxml2-dev libboost-all-dev ccache python3-full python3-pip 

$ sudo apt install libzmq5 libzmq3-dev libprotobuf-dev protobuf-compiler pkg-config

These packages are essential to build and run NS3 with OpenGym support.

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📦 Step 2: Download and Build NS3 (ns-allinone-3.40)

Download the NS3 source from the official site:

🔗 Download ns-allinone-3.40.tar.bz2

After downloading, move it to your home directory and extract it:

Right-click > Extract Here

Then in your terminal:

$ cd ns-allinone-3.40/
$ ./build.py --enable-examples --enable-tests

This step may take a while, depending on your system. Wait until the build completes.

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🤖 Step 3: Clone and Integrate ns3-gym (OpenGym)

In a new terminal, run:

$ cd ns-allinone-3.40/ns-3.40/contrib
$ git clone https://github.com/tkn-tub/ns3-gym.git ./opengym
$ cd opengym
$ git checkout app-ns-3.36+
$ cd ../../
$ ./ns3 configure --enable-examples
$ ./ns3 build

If the build finishes without errors, congratulations! You’re ready to start running RL simulations.

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🧪 Step 4: Install ns3gym (Python3 Module)

$ cd ns-allinone-3.40/ns-3.40/contrib/opengym
$ sudo apt install python3-full
$ python3 -m venv ns3gym-venv
$ source ./ns3gym-venv/bin/activate
$ pip3 install ./model/ns3gym

You’re now ready to run sample reinforcement learning scripts!

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🧬 Run Example Scripts

Run a quick test to verify the setup:

$ cd examples/opengym
$ ./simple_test.py

Or, run the NS3 simulation and Gym agent in two separate terminals.

Terminal 1:

$ cd ns-allinone-3.40/ns-3.40
$ ./ns3 run "opengym"

Terminal 2:

$ cd ns-allinone-3.40/ns-3.40/contrib/opengym/examples/opengym/
$ ./test.py --start=0

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📡 Bonus: RL for TCP Congestion Control

🎥 Watch the demo here (Members only)

Unlock advanced NS3 simulations using reinforcement learning in network protocols.

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🙌 Wrap-Up

With this setup, you can now begin developing and testing AI-powered networking solutions using NS3-Gym on Ubuntu 24.04. If you found this guide helpful:

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Stay tuned for upcoming tutorials on deep reinforcement learning, custom environments, and more!

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