testing netowrk algorithms

hello,
I’m doing a project which involves studying routing algorithms and designing one to improve network performance.
my question is how can i test the algorithm? my professor told me that I have to simulate a network using C or JAVA. Is there an alternate method to simulate a network to test routing algorithms?
I am from a EEE background and am foresee long hours of debugging C code unless someone helps me with an alternate solution.
ns2 (network simulator) won’t do as there is no option to put your own specialised algorithm there..
help needed!!!
thanks,
suganya.