Considering the environment's characteristics in wireless networks simulations: case of the simulator NS2 and the WSN

Abstract

Recently, the wireless networks, particularly the wireless sensor networks (WSN) occupy an important place in several application areas due to the progress in microelectronics and wireless communications domains. Thus, a set of researches had addressed this issue in order to broaden the possibilities offered by these networks and circumvent the encountered problems. The test of any new solution is an essential phase to validate its performances. This phase is done in network simulators; which NS is the most used. The impact of the physical layer and the radio signal propagation environment criteria on the simulations results is indisputable. In this context, and after presenting and classifying the radio propagation models, we study in detail the implemented models in NS-2. The focus is on the ability of these models to consider the characteristics of the wireless networks deployment environment (e.g., nature, position and mobility of the obstacles). And to consider the specificities of WSN, the effect of other parameters (e.g., antenna height) will be discussed.