McNT

McNT, short for Multi-Channel Network Toolkit, is an open-source software framework designed to facilitate the design, testing, and deployment of networked applications across multiple transport channels, including wired, wireless, and satellite links. The project provides abstractions for channel modeling, packet formats, and protocol stacks, enabling researchers and developers to build portable experiments without reimplementing common infrastructure. McNT emphasizes reproducibility and modularity, allowing users to swap channel models or protocol implementations with minimal changes to the surrounding code.

McNT began as a collaborative effort by researchers and developers in 2019, with initial releases focusing on a core protocol engine and a basic channel simulator. It is distributed under the MIT license and is maintained by a community-driven governance model, with teams contributing through a public repository and discussion forums. The project aims to lower barriers to cross-channel experimentation and to foster shared benchmarks and datasets.

Its architecture centers on a lightweight core runtime written in Rust for performance, with Python bindings for rapid experimentation. The framework includes a Channel Manager, a Protocol Engine, a Simulation Runner, and an Instrumentation suite. It supports plugin drivers for protocol implementations and backends for real hardware tests or virtualized networks, as well as integration with containerized environments and continuous integration systems. McNT also provides a modular logging and tracing subsystem to support reproducible research.

McNT is used in academic labs and industry research and development to prototype cross-channel protocols, evaluate performance under varied channel conditions, and run repeatable experiments. Adoption has grown steadily, supported by documentation, example projects, and an active community, though the ecosystem remains maturing and requires some investment to leverage its full capabilities.