Emulation of secure Wi-Fi communication: A performance gap analysis against a virtual test-bed

Wireless local area networks (WLANs) gained evergrowing importance in public transportation systems where they are selected to reduce installation costs and introduce new services. However, the introduction of a wireless interface in safety critical applications implies different communication protocol analysis and the introduction of a security layer is indispensable to implement defenses from malicious attacks. Host Identity Protocol (HIP) based network with IPSec is the network architecture proposed to secure wireless communications in large public transportation system. This paper analyses a comparison between the proposed architecture tested in a real environment and in an emulated scenario. The measurement campaign was carried out in outdoor using commercial on the shelf (COTS) Wi-Fi devices. The Common Open Research Emulator (CORE) with the Extendable Mobile Ad-hoc Network Emulator (EMANE) framework were used to evaluate the same scenario in a virtual test-bed. Results indicate how the end-to-end secure wireless communication built in the emulator works similarly to an intra-vehicular on-board network.