Scalable simulation of large-scale wireless networks with bounded inaccuracies
MSWiM '04 Proceedings of the 7th ACM international symposium on Modeling, analysis and simulation of wireless and mobile systems
Fast performance assessment of IEEE 802.11-based wireless networks
Mathematical and Computer Modelling: An International Journal
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A major problem with leveraging event-driven, packet-level simulation environments, such as ns2[6], J-Sim[1], OpNet[2]), and QualNet[3]), in conducting wireless network simulation is the vast number of events generated, a majority of which are related to signal transmission in the PHY/MAC layers.In this extended abstract, we investigate the operations of signal transmission in the various stages: signal propagation, signal interference, and interaction with the PHY/MAC layers, and identify where events can be reduced without impairing the accuracy. We propose to leverage the MAC/PHY state information, and devise (from the perspective of network simulation) a reactive channel model (RCM) in which nodes explicitly register their interests in receiving certain events according to the MAC/PHY states they are in and the corresponding operations that should be performed. The simulation study indicates that RCM renders an order of magnitude of speed-up without compromising the accuracy of simulation results. An advantage of RCM with respect to the implementation is that there is no need to re-design the channel model for each specific MAC layer, and the modification made in the MAC/PHY layers is quite modest (e.g., a few API changes). This, coupled with the performance gain, suggests that RCM is an attractive, light-weight mechanism for expediting wireless network simulation.