Methodology and Tools for Measurements on Wireless Testbeds: The NITOS Approach

Since its establishment in 2009, the Network Implementation Testbed using Open Source drivers (NITOS) wireless testbed has been extensively used in several research projects for the experimental evaluation of protocols and algorithms. Collection of accurate measurements is of crucial importance for testbed users, allowing them to both select appropriate topologies for their experiments and assess the performance of their implementations. In this chapter, we describe measurement methodologies and tools used in the NITOS testbed in the context of its involvement in some of these projects. We provide examples demonstrating the utility of these tools for specific experiments. We also explain the challenges posed by the complex wireless medium, summarize lessons learned and outline future plans of NITOS towards an enhanced and more integrated measurement framework.