Wireless Network Testing and Evaluation using Real-time Emulation

Full scale physical testbeds used in network testing and evaluation of wireless network systems have certain limitations that do not allow testers and evaluators to obtain results in an easy way. Considerable time, effort and resource costs have to be invested to obtain comprehensive performance results on such testbeds. This paper proposes an alternative approach to network testing and evaluation based on the real – time emulation capability of the QualNet simulator. It provides an overview of the approach and provides illustrations to outline how a testbed based on real-time emulation can be set up. The effectiveness of such a testbed is highlighted by a use case, where performance evaluation results are presented for a wireless ad hoc network which is to be deployed over a range of scenarios.

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