diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index cdb47dd9..02b9d3b3 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -3,3 +3,13 @@ astra-sim-alibabacloud/build/simai_analytical/build/
 test/log/
 *.log
 .cur*
+
+# for vscode
+*.idea
+
+# for clion
+cmake-build-*/
+
+# output
+results/
+bin/
diff --git a/astra-sim-alibabacloud/build/astra_ns3/CMakeLists.txt b/astra-sim-alibabacloud/build/astra_ns3/CMakeLists.txt
deleted file mode 100644
index 90340392..00000000
--- a/astra-sim-alibabacloud/build/astra_ns3/CMakeLists.txt
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,19 +0,0 @@
-# CMake requirement
-cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.15)
-
-# C++ requirement
-set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 17)
-set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD_REQUIRED True)
-add_definitions("-Wall -g")
-SET(CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE "Debug")
-
-# Compiler requirement
-if (CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_ID STREQUAL "GNU")
-    if (CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_VERSION VERSION_LESS 5.3)
-        message(FATAL_ERROR "g++ (GNU) version should be greater than 5.3, but found ${CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_VERSION}")
-    endif()
-endif()
-
-
-# Setup project
-project(AstraSimNetwork)
diff --git a/astra-sim-alibabacloud/build/astra_ns3/build.sh b/astra-sim-alibabacloud/build/astra_ns3/build.sh
index 9f69e5cd..b874bc9e 100755
--- a/astra-sim-alibabacloud/build/astra_ns3/build.sh
+++ b/astra-sim-alibabacloud/build/astra_ns3/build.sh
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ echo $SCRIPT_DIR
 GEM5_DIR="${SCRIPT_DIR:?}"/../../extern/network_backend/garnet/gem5_astra/
 ASTRA_SIM_DIR="${SCRIPT_DIR:?}"/../../astra-sim
 INPUT_DIR="${SCRIPT_DIR:?}"/../../inputs
-NS3_DIR="${SCRIPT_DIR:?}"/../../extern/network_backend/ns3-interface
+NS3_DIR="${SCRIPT_DIR:?}"/../../../ns-3-alibabacloud
 NS3_APPLICATION="${NS3_DIR:?}"/simulation/src/applications/
 SIM_LOG_DIR=/etc/astra-sim
 BUILD_DIR="${SCRIPT_DIR:?}"/build/
@@ -35,34 +35,26 @@ function cleanup_result {
     rm -rf "${RESULT_DIR}"
 }
 
-function compile_astrasim {
-    cd "${BUILD_DIR}" || exit
-    cmake ..
-    make
-}
-
 function compile {
     # Only compile & Run the AstraSimNetwork ns3program
     if [ ! -f '"${INPUT_DIR}"/inputs/config/SimAI.conf' ]; then
         echo ""${INPUT_DIR}"/config/SimAI.conf is not exist"
         cp "${INPUT_DIR}"/config/SimAI.conf "${SIM_LOG_DIR}"/config/SimAI.conf
     fi
-    cp "${ASTRA_SIM_DIR}"/network_frontend/ns3/AstraSimNetwork.cc "${NS3_DIR}"/simulation/scratch/
-    cp "${ASTRA_SIM_DIR}"/network_frontend/ns3/*.h "${NS3_DIR}"/simulation/scratch/
-    rm -rf "${NS3_APPLICATION}"/astra-sim 
-    cp -r "${ASTRA_SIM_DIR}" "${NS3_APPLICATION}"/
     cd "${NS3_DIR}/simulation"
     # CC='gcc-4.9' CXX='g++-4.9' 
-    CC='gcc' CXX='g++' 
-    ./ns3 configure -d debug --enable-mtp
-    ./ns3 build
-
+    CC='gcc' CXX='g++'
+    mkdir build
+    cd build
+    cmake ..
+    make -j12 AstraSimNetworkNs3
     cd "${SCRIPT_DIR:?}"
 }
 
+# this cannot work; should use cmake to debug, neither waf nor ns3
 function debug {
-    cp "${ASTRA_SIM_DIR}"/network_frontend/ns3/AstraSimNetwork.cc "${NS3_DIR}"/simulation/scratch/
-    cp "${ASTRA_SIM_DIR}"/network_frontend/ns3/*.h "${NS3_DIR}"/simulation/scratch/
+#    cp "${ASTRA_SIM_DIR}"/network_frontend/ns3/AstraSimNetwork.cc "${NS3_DIR}"/simulation/scratch/
+#    cp "${ASTRA_SIM_DIR}"/network_frontend/ns3/*.h "${NS3_DIR}"/simulation/scratch/
     cd "${NS3_DIR}/simulation"
     CC='gcc-4.9' CXX='g++-4.9' 
     ./waf configure
@@ -82,10 +74,9 @@ case "$1" in
     cleanup_result;;
 -d|--debug)
     setup
-    debug;;
+    debug;; # todo: remove?
 -c|--compile)
     setup
-    compile_astrasim
     compile;;
 -r|--run)
     setup
diff --git a/ns-3-alibabacloud b/ns-3-alibabacloud
index 781b7d80..6825e1e8 160000
--- a/ns-3-alibabacloud
+++ b/ns-3-alibabacloud
@@ -1 +1 @@
-Subproject commit 781b7d804736bdbbc184254636d6a3c8cfea9ab4
+Subproject commit 6825e1e8f706de2bd96cebcbccae964d97fc0484
diff --git a/scripts/build.sh b/scripts/build.sh
index 6910c1a8..ad13faae 100755
--- a/scripts/build.sh
+++ b/scripts/build.sh
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ SCRIPT_DIR=$(dirname "$(realpath $0)")
 ROOT_DIR=$(realpath "${SCRIPT_DIR:?}"/..)
 NS3_DIR="${ROOT_DIR:?}"/ns-3-alibabacloud
 SIMAI_DIR="${ROOT_DIR:?}"/astra-sim-alibabacloud
-SOURCE_NS3_BIN_DIR="${SIMAI_DIR:?}"/extern/network_backend/ns3-interface/simulation/build/scratch/ns3.36.1-AstraSimNetwork-debug
+SOURCE_NS3_BIN_DIR="${ROOT_DIR:?}"/ns-3-alibabacloud/simulation/build/AstraSimNetworkNs3
 SOURCE_ANA_BIN_DIR="${SIMAI_DIR:?}"/build/simai_analytical/build/simai_analytical/SimAI_analytical
 SOURCE_PHY_BIN_DIR="${SIMAI_DIR:?}"/build/simai_phy/build/simai_phynet/SimAI_phynet
 
@@ -12,9 +12,9 @@ function compile {
     case "$option" in
     "ns3")
         mkdir -p "${TARGET_BIN_DIR:?}"
-        rm -rf "${SIMAI_DIR:?}"/extern/network_backend/ns3-interface/
-        mkdir -p "${SIMAI_DIR:?}"/extern/network_backend/ns3-interface
-        cp -r "${NS3_DIR:?}"/* "${SIMAI_DIR:?}"/extern/network_backend/ns3-interface
+#        rm -rf "${SIMAI_DIR:?}"/extern/network_backend/ns3-interface/
+#        mkdir -p "${SIMAI_DIR:?}"/extern/network_backend/ns3-interface
+#        cp -r "${NS3_DIR:?}"/* "${SIMAI_DIR:?}"/extern/network_backend/ns3-interface
         cd "${SIMAI_DIR:?}"
         ./build.sh -lr ns3
         ./build.sh -c ns3    
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ function cleanup_build {
     case "$option" in
     "ns3")
         rm  "${TARGET_BIN_DIR:?}"/SimAI_simulator
-        rm -rf "${SIMAI_DIR:?}"/extern/network_backend/ns3-interface/
+#        rm -rf "${SIMAI_DIR:?}"/extern/network_backend/ns3-interface/
         cd "${SIMAI_DIR:?}"
         ./build.sh -lr ns3;;
     "phy")