Attack of the Ants: Studying Ant Routing Algorithms in Simulation and Wireless Testbeds

Wireless networks are becoming the key building block of our communications infrastructure. Examples range from cellular networks to ad hoc and sensor networks in wildlife monitoring and environmental scenarios. With the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) millions of physical and virtual objects will communicate wireless and enhance the daily life. The adaptivity and scalability of wireless networks in the IoT is one of the most challenging tasks. Bio-inspired networking algorithms are a way to tackle these issues. In this paper we present a simulation framework based on OMNeT++ to implement ant routing algorithms to study and compare them on the algorithmic level and an approach to run large simulation studies in a comprehensive way.