Measurement-based simulation of WiFi interference

A typical wireless network exhibits time-varying channel conditions and complex interference relationships, which are also influenced by different vendor implementations. Therefore, to improve the mapping between wireless simulation and real life, site and device specific models are needed. In this paper, we propose such interference models, called BOWLsim-advanced, based on measurements in two WiFi testbeds. We validate BOWLsim-advanced in complex interference scenarios comprising of hidden terminals, multi-hop flows, and inter-flow interference and show that it has better accuracy compared to both our earlier work and the default interference model of ns-3 (Network Simulator 3). However, the maximum improvement is observed for hidden terminals at the PHY layer, and for multi-hop flows and unicast communication, performance varies based on whether nodes are able to carrier-sense each other or have asymmetric interference. Essentially, our results show that PHY-layer models become insufficient for asymmetric interference, which requires better MAC layer models for higher accuracy.