mininet simulation without controller and with

Question

Whats the difference between using mininet simulation without controller and with controller? Whats the point to use simulation without controller?

Sorry for noob question.

Many thanks,

Answer 1

The Mininet network without a controller is a collection of virtual switches and hosts. You can still interact with hosts and use ovs-ofctl to configure flows on the switches, but this would make you the controller.

Using a controller with Mininet doesn't guarantee anything, it is up to the applications configured on the controller to control the network, but ideally the controller is running a L2 learning switch application to give you some network functionality.