Licensing FAQ
Who needs a commercial license?
Basically anyone who is doing commercial work with OMNEST/OMNeT++. In determining whether a commercial license is needed, the purpose of the project must be considered.
What license do I need, if I am in an education / research environment?
| User | Purpose | License required |
| Student | Course Work | Free |
| Student | Thesis, homework | Free |
| Student | Research where results are for industry (e.g. University receives a grant to organize research). Results serve industry interests | Commercial |
| School, University | Course development, courses, teaching, practice labs. | Free |
| School, University | Research for industry partners | Commercial |
Who needs to have their own commercial license in a company?
| User | Type of activity | License required |
| Developer, researcher | Uses OMNEST to develop, debug and run simulations, collects and processes results. | Commercial |
| Team member | Uses results of simulations in external applications. No part of the OMNEST software is used, only the results. | License not needed. |
| Team Leader | Does code review, debugging and development | Commercial |
| Development Leader | Occasionally checks on results, may run simulations on their machine to check their state. Having OMNEST installed is more of a convenience, than a tool. | Free |
| Business Partner | Receives Simulations to run on their own system, to check against their own development. | Commercial* |
| Embedding, Self-contained simulations | A new application is to be created, where the OMNEST simulation kernel, or part of it is to be embedded and marketed as part of the new product, or OMNEST is used to export self-contained simulations capable of functioning without an installed OMNEST system. | Custom license, please contact us. |
- One exception is, if the partner only receives a stand-alone simulation that is only capable of emulating a device or piece of code that needs to be used in a "hardware in the loop" simulation. This kind of "virtual prototyping" is possible through the normal license, but we also have runtime licenses available for this purpose if the partner does not want, or can not make use of the full OMNEST system.
Q: I am an individual, and would like to evaluate OMNEST, get to know the software. Can I download and use the free version for this purpose?
A: Yes. You can use the free version for evaluation purposes.
Q: We are a company, and would like to evaluate OMNEST in our environment before purchasing it. What should we do?
A: Please get in touch with us. We welcome requests for evaluation. We will agree on an evaluation period, during which time you will be able to evaluate OMNEST free of charge, and receive technical support.
Q: I am a student at a university, our university is working in partnership together with industry, and I have been given an assignment as part of that program. Can I make use of the free version for this assignment?
A: While you are welcome to use OMNeT++ for educational purposes, and it is a matter of principle for us to provide our software for free for educational purposes, assignments of this kind require a commercial license. Such kind of co-operation between universities and industry is in essence an out-sourcing of industrial research to the university lab. While this provides opportunity for students to work on real-life problems and provides extra funding to universities, the cost of commercial licenses must be factored in, since the research being performed is commercially oriented.
Q: We use OMNEST in our company to develop simulations. I need to make a presentation from a different computer. Do I need an extra license?
A: No.
Q: We use OMNEST in our company to develop simulations. I would like to send simulations to our partner(s) for evaluation. What licensing options are available?
A: If your partner has an OMNEST license, then this will be covered by it. If your partner does not have an OMNEST license, then you will have to produce and distribute a self-contained simulation that also contains part of the OMNEST framework. Please contact us to discuss this option. You(or your partner) may purchase runtime licenses to cover the distribution and use of such narrow-scope prototypes. More complicated applications that embed the OMNEST simulation kernel will need a custom embedding license.
Q: To show off our results, I have recorded a movie of the simulation running, and sent our results off to a partner. Do I, or do they need to have a license?
A: No. All intellectual property you produce in OMNEST is yours. You can distribute it on your own terms, or use it internally as you please.
Q: Can I re-distribute my simulations in souce-code form?
A: Yes. All intellectual property you produce in OMNEST is yours. You can distribute it on your own terms, or use it internally as you please.
