Simulation of large ad hoc networks

ABSTRACT

This research was supported, in part, by the NCCR "Mobile Information and Communication Systems", a research program of the Swiss National Science Foundation, and by a gift from the Microprocessor Research Lab (MRL) of Intel Corp.An ad hoc network is formed by wireless mobile nodes (hosts) that operate as terminals as well as routers in the network, without any centralized administration. Research in ad hoc networks often involves simulators since management and operation of a large number of nodes is expensive. However, the widely used simulator NS-2 does not scale; it is very hard to simulate medium scale networks with 100+ nodes. We describe here improvements to NS-2 to meet the needs of large ad hoc network simulations. The modified NS-2 simulator is based on the idea of exploiting the limited interference of wireless communication. The modified simulator has simulated populations of up to 3000 nodes so far and works up to 30 times faster than the original version. We also discuss how the modified simulator is validated.

REFERENCES

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.6 SIMULATION AND MODELING
      I.6.5 Model Development

Additional Classification:
  E. Data
  E.1 DATA STRUCTURES
      Subjects: Graphs and networks

  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.6 SIMULATION AND MODELING
      I.6.4 Model Validation and Analysis

General Terms:
Algorithms, Experimentation, Performance

Keywords:
ad hoc networks, network simulation, scalability