Simulation of large ad hoc networks

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. Categories and Subject Descriptors: I.6.5 [Simulation and Modeling]: Model Development; I.6.4 Model Validation and Analysis — NS-2; E.1 [Data Structures]: Graphs and Networks General ...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2003
• Where: MSWIM
• Authors: Valeriy Naoumov, Thomas R. Gross
• Keywords: Ad Hoc Network, Modelling And Simulation, MSWIM 2003, Simulator, Wireless Mobile Nodes