Satellite telecommunication networks Simulation and Emulation requirements

Telecommunication networks are complex systems in term of design, development, management and maintenance. The degree of complexity greatly increases when the network is composed of several segments adopting different technologies and standards, as well as the sharing of common resources. Development of suitable models of networking and their implementation using simulation and emulation tools are of paramount importance to address such a complexity in a laboratory-controlled environment. To tackle different aspects of satellite and terrestrial integrated networks, which cover different protocol layers and technology standards, different simulative or emulative approaches are possible. A presentation and selection of simulation and emulation tools is presented in this paper, followed by the description of results obtainable with the selected tools in some explicative study-cases.