EMWIN:: emulating a mobile wireless network using a wired network

Abstract

Test and performance evaluation of protocols and algorithms in mobile wireless networks is known to be challenging. Due to the highly varying characteristics of mobile wireless networks, one cannot merely rely on either network simulation or a testbed. Network emulation provides a controllable and reproducible environment, yet it generally lacks the support for the emulation of network topology and mobility, which are extremely critical in mobile wireless network research. We introduce EMWIN, a new IP-based mobile wireless emulation system that can overcome those drawbacks. In EMWIN, a target mobile wireless network is precisely mapped to an emulation configuration in a laboratory private network consisting of several emulator nodes, each of which is able to emulate multiple mobile hosts. Moreover, the emulator node can be flexibly configured such that predefined network conditions and traffic dynamics can be generated in an automatic manner. With EMWIN, the mobility of the target mobile wireless network with a number of mobile nodes can be faithfully emulated in a wired network environment.