Empirical Validation of Wireless Models in Simulations of Ad Hoc Routing Protocols

  • Authors:

  • Jason Liu;Yougu Yuan;David M. Nicol;Robert S. Gray;Calvin C. Newport;David Kotz;Luiz Felipe Perrone

  • Affiliations:

  • Department of Mathematical and Computer Sciences, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO 80401;Coordinated Science Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1308 West Main Street, Urbana, IL 61801;Coordinated Science Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1308 West Main Street, Urbana, IL 61801;Department of Computer Science, Dartmouth College, 6211 Sudikoff Laboratory, Hanover, NH 03755;Department of Computer Science, Dartmouth College, 6211 Sudikoff Laboratory, Hanover, NH 03755;Department of Computer Science, Dartmouth College, 6211 Sudikoff Laboratory, Hanover, NH 03755;Department of Computer Science, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA 17837

  • Venue:
  • Simulation
  • Year:
  • 2005

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Abstract

Computer simulation has been used extensively as an effective tool in the design and evaluation of systems. One should not, however, underestimate the importance of validation--the process of ensuring whether a simulation model is an appropriate representation of the real-world system. Validation of wireless network simulations is difficult due to strong interdependencies among protocols at different layers and uncertainty in the wireless environment. The authors present an approach of coupling direct-execution simulation and traces from real outdoor experiments to validating simple wireless models that are used commonly in simulations of wireless ad hoc networks. This article documents a common testbed that supports direct execution of a set of ad hoc routing protocol implementations in a wireless network simulator. By comparing routing behavior measured in the real experiment with behavior computed by the simulation, the authors validate the models of radio behavior upon which protocol behavior depends.