Overview of the network-initializer library

The network-initializer library manages the setup, execution, and teardown of a simulated drone-based network for client-server communication in an unreliable environment. It integrates with wg_internal for core types and protocols, common for shared utilities, and multiple external drone crates for routing. Uses channels for inter-node and controller communication, with a focus on configurable topologies and failure simulation (e.g., packet drops via PDR).

Provides a NetworkInitializer for parsing configs, initializing nodes (drones, clients, servers), running threaded simulations, and handling events/commands.

Features

• Config parsing and validation: TOML-based network topology with drones, clients, servers; checks for unique IDs, valid PDR (0.0-1.0), bidirectional connections, no self-loops, client/server constraints (e.g., clients connect to 1-2 drones, servers to ≥2).
• Node instantiation: Dynamically generates drones from external crates (e.g., RustDoIt, DroneDrone) via factory pattern; creates clients (WebBrowser, ChatClient) and servers (TextServer, MediaServer, ChatServer).
• Channel-based communication: Crossbeam channels for packets, drone commands/events, node commands/events.
• Stateful lifecycle: Uninitialized (config load) → Initialized (channel/node setup) → Running (threaded execution).
• Simulation control: Start spawns threads with barriers for synchronization; stop sends shutdown/crash commands and joins handles.
• Event handling: Receivers for drone/node events (e.g., DroneEvent, NodeEvent); getters for command senders, network view, and channels.
• Testing: Unit tests for parsing, validation (e.g., unidirectional errors, duplicates), initialization, getters, and event propagation.
• Error management: ConfigError variants for parsing/validation issues.

Architecture

Core Components

• NetworkInitializer: Phantom-typed struct for lifecycle stages; holds channels (communication, commands, events), config, node instances, thread handles, and network view.
• Config: Struct for drones (ID, PDR, connections), clients (ID, drone connections), servers (ID, drone connections); parsed from TOML.
• Channel: Wrapper for crossbeam sender/receiver pairs, used for packets, commands, events.
• Network: From common, represents topology with nodes and adjacents.
• Generate Drone: Factory selector cycles through external drone implementations for instantiation.
• Parser/Validate Traits: Extend Config for TOML parsing and multi-step validation (IDs, PDR, connections).
• Common Commands: Via DroneCommand (e.g., Crash) and NodeCommand (e.g., Shutdown, neighbor add/remove).

Details

Initialization

• new(config_path): Parses/validates TOML; panics on failure.
• initialize(): Sets up channels, instantiates drones/clients/servers with receivers/neighbors, builds network view.

Running

• start_simulation(): Spawns threads for drones (run directly), clients/servers (run with barriers); moves instances to threads.
• Getters: get_drones()/get_clients()/get_servers() return maps with PDR/types and command senders; get_network_view() clones topology; event receivers for monitoring.

Teardown

• stop_simulation(): Drops packet senders, sends shutdown/crash commands, joins threads; logs termination status.