Network Simulator: Find the Fastest Path to a Website (JavaScript, Cytoscape.js)

Author: Hasina JY

Description:

This project is a network simulator built with JavaScript and the Cytoscape.js library (http://js.cytoscape.org/). It helps you visualize and analyze network connections, finding the fastest path (shortest latency) to a website using Dijkstra's algorithm. Additionally, it allows you to simulate distance-based shortest paths with the Breadth-First Search (BFS) algorithm.

Key Features:

• Server Management:
  • Add servers by specifying their location (IP), hosted websites, and active state.
  • Edit existing server details.
  • Remove servers from the simulation.
• Network Modeling:
  • Link servers together and define latency values to represent connection speeds.
  • Edit link data (latency) for existing connections.
  • Unlink servers to modify the network topology.
• Pathfinding Algorithms:
  • Find the shortest path to a specific website based on latency using Dijkstra's algorithm.
  • Optionally, find the shortest path based on distance using the BFS algorithm.
• Visualization:
  • Visually represent the network using Cytoscape.js for clear understanding.
  • Highlight the shortest path discovered by the chosen algorithm.

How to Run the Project:

1. Prerequisites:
   • Ensure you have Node.js and npm installed on your system. You can download them from https://nodejs.org/.
2. Clone the Repository:
   • Use git clone https://github.com/hasinajy/dijkstra-js-network-simulator.git to clone this repository.
3. Install Dependencies:
   • To install cytoscape.js, please refer to the section "Setting Up Cytoscape.js" below.
   • To setup Font Awesome, please refer to the section "Font Awesome Setup" below.
4. Run the Simulator:
   • After installation, start the simulator by launching index.html in your browser.

Setting Up Cytoscape.js:

npm intall cytoscape

During npm install, Cytoscape.js will be automatically installed along with its dependencies.

Font Awesome Setup:

Note: This project utilizes Font Awesome as a standalone library during development. You might need to update the path depending on your integration method.

1. Visit the Font Awesome website (https://fontawesome.com/) and download the free version.
2. Extract the downloaded files and copy the fontawesome folder to a desired location within your project.
3. In your project code, reference the Font Awesome styles using the appropriate path to the copied folder.

License:

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.

Feel free to contribute!

This project is open-source and welcomes contributions. If you have suggestions or improvements, please consider creating a pull request.