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Nancy-Playground: A Console Calculator for Deterministic Network Calculus

Authors Raffaele Zippo , Giovanni Stea

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LIPIcs.ECRTS.2026.5.pdf
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Subject Classification

ACM Subject Classification
  • Computer systems organization → Real-time systems
  • Networks → Network performance analysis
  • Mathematics of computing → Mathematical software performance
Keywords
  • Deterministic Network Calculus
  • min-plus algebra
  • tooling

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Abstract

Deterministic Network Calculus (DNC) provides a rigorous algebra for worst-case performance analysis of networks. It allows researchers to compute bounds on worst-case characteristics of systems through algebraic expressions that may appear simple on paper but often require heavy computations, making software support essential. Libraries such as Nancy offer a rich API for DNC computations in C#, but they require programming expertise. In contrast, RTaW’s min-plus playground (MPPG) provides a simpler, calculator-like syntax for DNC computations; however, it is proprietary and web-hosted, limiting offline use and reproducibility. We present nancy-playground, an open-source, locally runnable console that implements the same MPPG syntax while executing computations through the Nancy library. This tool enables reproducible scripting, interactive exploration, and a seamless transition to full programs by converting MPPG scripts into C# code. In this paper, we describe the design and implementation of nancy-playground, as well as its main features for researchers and practitioners in the DNC community.

Cite As Get BibTex

Raffaele Zippo and Giovanni Stea. Nancy-Playground: A Console Calculator for Deterministic Network Calculus. In 38th European Conference on Real-Time Systems (ECRTS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 375, pp. 5:1-5:16, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026) https://doi.org/10.4230/LIPIcs.ECRTS.2026.5

Author Details

Raffaele Zippo
  • Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Informazione, Università di Pisa, Italy
Giovanni Stea
  • Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Informazione, Università di Pisa, Italy

Funding

This work was supported in part by the Italian Ministry of Education and Research (MIUR) in the framework of the FoReLab project (Departments of Excellence).

Supplementary Materials

References

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