Simulator-controlled real-world experiments in multihop wireless mesh networks

Abstract: This master thesis is dedicated to configuration of a test mesh network consisting of eight Linux based machines and development of traffic generator based on network simulator ns3. In general, the purpose of the testbed is to create real environment and run experimental scenarios based on traffic generated by the network simulator. Ns-3 is the first simulator supporting feeding the simulated data traffic into the real network. Normally, it is very hard to compare the results of the real-world experiments with the results obtained inside a simulator. This is because the implementation of network protocols is different in the two environments. By using the same traffic patterns both within the simulator and the real testbed will make the comparison fair. This can also be used to more accurate calibration of the simulator’s parameters in order to realistically model the behavior of the real network.