Wireless Sensor Networks Simulation

Abstract

The formidable growth of Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) research has raised challenging issues of examining the micro behaviour of proposed protocol and carrying out its performance evaluation. The methodologies to realize this is: mathematical modelling; experimentation and simulation. For WSNs, experimentation has financial constraints and mathematical modelling at times requires deep expertise in mathematics. Thus simulation has become the first choice for research in WSNs. There are several researchers using simulators but there is limited number of simulation studies in the literature.  To bridge the gap, this paper discusses the elements of WSN simulation, parameters of an ideal WSN Simulator and briefly describes the most significant simulation frameworks available. The selection of the simulation frameworks is based on their popularity, simulation results published in literature, important characteristics and features.