ALOHA network simulation in Python

Question

I'm currently studying the book From Algorithms to Z-Scores: Probabilistic and Statistical Modelling in Computer Science

In the first chapter of the book the ALOHA network protocol is introduced as an example of probabilistic modelling. I decided to write a python simulation and run some tests to check the overall performance of a network of this type (latency, successful transmission/accuracy).

import random
class aloha():  
    '''
    Aloha network simulation. 
    Each node tries to send into a single channel. It generates a message (becomes active) 
    with probability q. Then it tries to send the message into the channel with probability
    p. If more than one nodes try to send, a collision occurs resulting to failure, otherwise 
    transmission is successful.
    '''

    def __init__(self, nodes,p_send,q_generate,epochs):
        # number of nodes
        self.nodes = nodes

        # probability that an active node will send the generated message
        self.p_send = p_send

        # probability that a node will generate a message
        self.q_generate = q_generate

        # number of time steps to simulate
        self.epochs = epochs

        # list with the state of each node, initially all inactive
        self.states = [False for i in range(self.nodes)]

        # list of latencies for each node 
        self.latencies = [0 for i in range(self.nodes)]

        # list of transmission outcomes. True for success
        self.result = []

    def message_generation(self):
        '''
        Helper function to check message generation
        '''
        for i in range(len(self.states)):
            # need only to check for inactive nodes
            if self.states[i] == False:
                if random.random()<=self.q_generate:
                    self.states[i] = True


    def transmission(self):
        senders = []
        actives = []

        # gather the indices of all active nodes
        for i in range(len(self.states)):
            if self.states[i] == True:
                actives.append(i)

        # check if an active node will try to send
        for i in range(len(actives)):
            if random.random()<=self.p_send:
                senders.append(actives[i])

        #print('Towards the end of this epoch the nodes that try to send are ' + str(len(senders)))
        #print(senders)
        # If more than one try to send we have a collision that results in transmission failure
        if len(senders) > 1:
            self.result.append(False)
            # so any active node experiences latency
            for active in actives:
                self.latencies[active] += 1
        else:
            # If none wants to send then certainly we don't experience failure
            if (len(senders) == 0):
                self.result.append(True)
                # but we might experience latency 
                for active in actives:
                    self.latencies[active] += 1
            else:
                # Success. Only one node tries to send
                self.states[senders[0]] = False
                # and all other active nodes experience latency again
                actives.remove(senders[0])
                for active in actives:
                    self.latencies[active] +=1 
                self.result.append(True)
                #print('Thus resulting in successful transmission.')



    def simulate(self):
        for i in range(self.epochs):
            #print('At the start of epoch number ' + str(i) + ' the states are')
            #print(self.states)
            self.message_generation()
            #print('At the middle of epoch number ' + str(i) + ' the states are')
            #print(self.states)
            self.transmission()
            #print('At the end of epoch number ' + str(i) + ' the states are')
            #print(self.states)

The commented print statements were put for debug purposes. I apologize if it makes the code uglier. I'm on a transition from python 2 to python 3 so I'd like pointers to stuff that can be done more easily in the latter and overall comments on efficiency.

Below is the code for testing of the protocol.

'''
Code to test the accuracy of the network (#successful_transfers/#epochs)
and latency for various values of p
'''
q=0.5
p=0.05
n=3
e=500
accuracy = []
avg_latency = []
percentage_of_latents = []
while p<1:
    x = aloha(n,p,q,e)
    x.simulate()
    accuracy.append( x.result.count(True)/e )
    latents = [latency for latency in x.latencies if latency!=0]
    avg_latency.append(sum(latents)/len(latents))
    p += 0.1
print(accuracy)
print(avg_latency)

Answer 1

Lists of the same primitive elements

Instead of this:

# list with the state of each node, initially all inactive
self.states = [False for i in range(self.nodes)]

# list of latencies for each node 
self.latencies = [0 for i in range(self.nodes)]

A more compact and simpler way to create lists of the same primitive elements:

# list with the state of each node, initially all inactive
self.states = [False] * self.nodes

# list of latencies for each node 
self.latencies = [0] * self.nodes

Just be mindful that this technique is useful with primitive elements only.

Use boolean expressions directly

This is not natural writing style:

if self.states[i] == False:
    # ...

if self.states[i] == True:
    # ...

This is the recommended way:

if not self.states[i]:
    # ...

if self.states[i]:
    # ...

Non-empty lists are truthy, empty lists are falsy

Instead of this:

if (len(senders) == 0):
    # ...

You can write:

if not senders:
    # ... 

Use list comprehensions

Instead of this:

actives = []

# gather the indices of all active nodes
for i in range(len(self.states)):
    if self.states[i] == True:
        actives.append(i)

You can write more compactly using a list comprehension like this:

# gather the indices of all active nodes
actives = [i for i in range(len(self.states)) if self.states[i]]

You can do similarly for senders.

Iterating over indexes and values of a list

enumerate is very convenient when iterating over list indexes and values. For example instead of this:

# gather the indices of all active nodes
actives = [i for i in range(len(self.states)) if self.states[i]]

You can write more compactly and naturally like this:

# gather the indices of all active nodes
actives = [i for i, state in enumerate(self.states) if state]

Coding style

Python has an official style guide called PEP8. I suggest to follow it.