NS-2 support (removed in v2.0.0)¶

Everything about the former NS-2 target in one place: what was removed, where to get it, and why. The README carries a single pointer here rather than repeating any of it.

Status in one line: the NS-2 adapter was removed in v2.0.0 (#307). It was frozen at v1.2.0, the last release NS-2 work was done for, and shipped unchanged through v1.9.0, the last release that contains it.

Where to get it¶


Last actively-supported release	`v1.2.0` — citable at its own version DOI, `10.5281/zenodo.21762983`
Last release that ships the adapter	`v1.9.0`
First release without it	`v2.0.0` (dropping a platform is breaking, so it needed a major)
Images	`ghcr.io/danieljoppi/anthocnet-ns2:2.34` / `:2.35` and the plain `ns2:2.34` / `:2.35`; the immutable `-v1.2.0` pins (`anthocnet-ns2:2.34-v1.2.0`, `:2.35-v1.2.0`) are the reproducible ones. Nothing published is deleted, but no new NS-2 image is built after v2.0.0

To run it, check out a tag that ships it and use that tree's own instructions:

git clone https://github.com/danieljoppi/AntHocNet.git && cd AntHocNet
git checkout v1.2.0            # or v1.9.0
make install-ns2 NS2DIR=/path/to/ns-allinone-2.3x/ns-2.3x
cd /path/to/ns-allinone-2.3x/ns-2.3x && make

docker run --rm -it ghcr.io/danieljoppi/anthocnet-ns2:2.35-v1.2.0   # `ns` with the agent

Per-adapter detail (patch anchors, TCL bindings, example scenarios) is in that tree's ns2/README.md.

Why it was retired¶

The full reasoning is on #307; the short version:

It was the only target that required edits inside the simulator's own tree. ns-3 installs as an additive contrib/ module; NS-2 needed an idempotent anchor-based source patch (ADR-0005, now historical) that broke — loudly, by design — whenever upstream moved a text anchor.
It never got a benchmark harness. The NS-2 leg ran a CI smoke asserting non-zero delivery over a forced 2-hop route and nothing else, so the "cross-simulator validation" it was meant to provide was never actually built.
Contemporary reviewers read NS-2 in a 2026 paper as a reproducibility red flag rather than a credential (the survey work behind #298).
It consumed real CI and packaging budget: two adapter-compile jobs against real ns-2.34/2.35 trees, a valgrind leg, a patch round-trip job, and four published container images.

Papers are version-scoped (the maintainer decision recorded on #307): a paper written against a release that ships both adapters is not falsified by a later release that ships one.

What the removal did not change¶

The simulator-agnostic core/, the ports seam, the wire codec and the "no NS headers in core/" golden rule all stay — ADR-0023, which supersedes ADR-0002, records why. The core still has two consumers: the ns-3 adapter and the browser adapter that runs it as WebAssembly on the learn site (ADR-0021).

NS-2 support (removed in v2.0.0)¶

Where to get it¶

Why it was retired¶

What the removal did not change¶

See also¶