Surv ey of Simulators for Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) have been gaining growing interest in the past years, which has resulted in many proposals of their new applications. The main tasks of a sensor network include not only monitoring and measuring certain phenomena, but also delivering gathered data. Hence, every single node needs to be a wireless router aside from being only a simple sensing device. The idea and the attributes of a Wireless Sensor Network require designers to apply different techniques than those hitherto used in wired as well as in wireless networks. The dynamic progress in the field of WSNs entails the need of creating simulators that have more specific capabilities. Such simulation tools should allow researchers to verify new ideas and compare the proposed solutions in a virtual environment helping to avoid unnecessary, time-consuming or expensive hardware implementations. When beginning to work with Wireless Sensor Networks, it is important to choose a simulation environment that will be up to requirements and will allow the researcher to conduct experiments in a given area. Appropriately, the researcher faces a necessity of finding and getting oneself familiar with many simulators, often designed for radically different applications. This article presents a classification and a wide review the main features of various simulation platforms.