NETorium

Abstract

Wireless networks take advantage of various technologies that wired networks do not use, such as authentication and ad hoc networks. Although it is important to verify such wireless network technologies, it is expensive or technologically difficult to repeatedly reproduce the wireless environments required for verification. Additionally, large-scale wireless network environments such as IoT environments are also required for verification of wireless technologies. However, conventional verification approaches cannot provide large-scale wireless network environments that, emulate radio propagation or verify actual wireless technologies and applications.We propose NETorium, which provides large-scale wireless network environments that are suitable for verification of wireless network technologies. NETorium comprises Meteor, a radio propagation emulator, and Asteroid, a virtual wireless network software for building virtual wireless network environments that employ hardware emulators in a wired network. Meteor can handle network protocols that, conventional radio propagation emulators cannot and is capable of emulating radio propagation in large-scale wireless network environments. Asteroid constructs virtual wireless networks that can transmit actual wireless frames.We demonstrate that NETorium can handle 1000-node wireless networks; conventional approaches can only handle a maximum of 100 nodes. Additionally, a performance evaluation of a simulated network with WPA2 authentication in the ad hoc mode demonstrates that NETorium can emulate large-scale wireless network environments with high-fidelity.