Simulation of unidirectional links in wireless sensor networks

Experiments with wireless sensor networks have shown that asymmetric and unidirectional links are common. For this reason, we developed different routing protocols that can use unidirectional links, either implicitly or explicitly. However, developing protocols that use unidirectional links is difficult, not least because of inadequate simulation support. In this paper we present a simulation model based on OMNeT++ and MiXiM that we developed to simulate networks with unidirectional links and frequent link changes. We evaluate the developed simulation approach by comparison of results achieved by different routing protocols in simulation and in experiments with real sensor network hardware.