Rutgers University
Department of
Electrical and Computer Engineering
M.S. Thesis Abstract
EFFECTS OF PHYSICAL LAYER MODELS ON WIRELESS NETWORK SIMULATIONS
by
Umut Akyol
In the study of wireless networks, simulation has become the most common tool for evaluation of devices and protocols due to its ease of use. However, the correct level of detail that should be implemented in simulations is not well known by the research community. For example, the most common simulators are essentially packet level network protocol simulators which use simple channel models for computational efficiency. In this thesis, we explore the effects of physical layer details on wireless network simulations.
In this thesis, we focus on a specific network simulator, ns-2, due to its open source code base and a specific protocol 802.11b, due to the fact that it's already implemented in ns-2. The ns-2 simulator focuses on the higher layer protocols, while abstracting the details of models at other layers, particularly the interactions with physical layer models. In this thesis, we examine physical layer models for transmitter interference, signal transmission and reception for 802.11b that are relevant to the performance evaluation of higher layer protocols. Starting with an overview of 802.11b's physical layer and current physical layer modeling of ns-2 with the Monarch extensions, we propose and implement enhancements to the physical layer models. We also describe how these changes can be used to model physical layers other than 802.11b. We then quantify the impact of these changes under typical scenarios used for the performance evaluation of wireless networks.
Thesis Director: Professor Roy Yates
January, 2005