AIS300 - Scheme of Work - Scholarly Commons Home

Computer network simulators are essential in the evaluation and designing of
networking protocols and distributed networking systems (Walsh & Sirer, 2004). In the
area of wireless ad hoc and sensor networks, simulators can be used to evaluate new
systems and protocols based on various deployment scenarios (Jardosh, Belding-Royer,
Almeroth, & Suri, 2003; Walsh & Sirer, 2004). Simulator can also be used to test other
ubiquitous devices such as Bluetooth that may need to co-exist with 802.11 devices
(Bethala, Joshi, Phatak, Avancha, & Goff, 2002). As in wired LAN, it is also very
important that a well-established simulation technique is followed when evaluating a
WLAN. This would include a descriptive WLAN experimental study scenarios
(Perrone, Yuan, & Nicol, 2003).
However, choosing a suitable wireless network simulator for a business and its
application requires a thorough assessment of the available simulation software in term
of its performance, scalability and reliability. The current wireless network simulation
software are available both as commercial and open source products. The most
important aspect of a network simulator or model is in its ability to correctly match the
generated network model to the real life WLAN topology. The network simulator must
be able to modeled scenarios such as link failure, device failure, load change, route
change, link change, and link overloading (Fritz, 2004). The rule to accurately assess
the performance of a wireless network, is to develop and implement a valid network
simulation model that will therefore ensure a valid and repeatable network simulation
experiment (Pawlikowski, Jeong, & Lee, 2002).
The network simulators that are available both commercially and open source which can
be utilized by the businesses in Auckland CBD or anywhere else to evaluate their
current or future wireless network are as follow.
Shunra Virtual Enterprise (Shunra VE) 5.0: This application will provides an
accurate modeling and analyzing of network performance (Shunra, 2007). Shunra is a
hardware-based application therefore provide more advantage in terms of performance
when compared to a software-based simulation application (Fritz, 2004; Markus, 2004).
QualNet Developer: QualNet offers distributed and parallel network simulator that can
model large scale LAN and WLAN with heavy traffic (Scalable Network Technologies,
2007).
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