Best Simulator for Wireless Sensor Networks

Overview of WSN Simulator: In the current revolutionary digital world, imprints of wireless sensor networks (WSN) can be found in every place of technological advancements. So, the growth of WSN researches is increasing tremendously in the research community. To make the research work ease, several WSN Simulator have already been introduced and a few more are under development stage. All these tools are compared and differentiated through their objectives, features, and design.  This article is organized to show you the best simulator for wireless sensor networks with the criteria to select and evaluate the best tool!!!

Among these tools, developers/scholars need to choose the appropriate one for their WSN Project Development. For that, it is necessary to assess the usability, friendliness, functionalities, etc. of the tools. Then, choose the most benefited tool for your project. Our developers have long-lasting experience in handling different network simulators for WSN projects. So, we assist you to choose the Best Simulator for Wireless Sensor Networks. So, make this tool selection step easier by holding your hands with our experts. We assure you that we select the tool based on your preferences and project requirements.  

WSN Simulators: State-of-the-Art

In truth, our developer team has the habit of modernizing skills on recent WSN development tools and technologies. Since we usually upgrade our software development platforms and tools to cope up with current advanced WSN researches.

For that, we refer to several upcoming WSN simulator articles and most cited WSN simulators to undergo a complete review of the collected information. Here, we initially define the sequential processes to address the methodological approach for assessing the performance of different WSN Simulator. 

Here, we have given you the important characteristics that one should look forward to choosing Best Simulator for Wireless Sensor Networks. Have a look at the appropriate simulation environment for WSN simulators. 

What do we expect for a good WSN simulator?

• Graphical User Interface
• Network Reusability 
• File Tracing and Debugging Support
• Resource Availability
• Scalability to adapt Large-scale Network 
• Improved Network Performance 
• Enrichment in Semantics Scripting Languages (for defining simulation and results)

Next, we can see the systematic review to be carried out to identify the best WSN simulators. This review process helps you to recognize and examine globally famous recent simulators particularly used for developing wireless sensor networking applications. Here, we have given you the steps of the systematic review process. When you follow this procedure, you can surely find the best simulator for wireless sensor networks. Further, we also provide our experts guidance in recommending the best-fitting tool for your project.

Systematic Review

• Explore the works that handled for WSN simulators
• Select the related articles suitable for your proposed application
• Identify the suggested WSN simulators in the handpicked set of papers
• Analyze the efficiency of the performance of suggested simulators
• Perform comparative study over various WSN simulators
• Assess the metrics and demerits of using those WSN simulators
• Find the set of optimal simulators which sure to give the best results
• Choose one among them based on your project needs

In addition to a systematic review, we can also improve the WSN simulators assessment through a methodological approach. This approach is intended to analyze the simulators based on the qualitative criteria. For instance, you can inspect the simulator’s features like wireless channel modeling, network scalability, sensors mobility, overall resource usage (from trace files), etc. By the by, it deeply evaluates the simulators based on functional requirements of the proposed applications. In other words, it exactly points out whether the handpicked simulator will meet your application objectives or not. Below, we have given you the procedure to conduct a methodological approach.

Methodological approach to evaluate WSN simulators

• Step 1: Create an Essential Set of Criteria
  • Identify the required criteria to assess the simulator in multiple dimensions
• Step 2: Create the Simulation Setup
  • Develop the platform where the simulators to be installed and performed 
• Step 3: Assess the Simulators based on Qualitative Criteria 
  • Gather possible vital features of simulators for simulator evaluation and go through the simulator documentation 
• Step 4: Model the Experiment Scenario to assess Computable Criteria
  • Specify the WSN scenario through different parameters which explicitly signify the characteristics of WSN use-cases
• Step 5: Execute the Scenario to assess Computable Criteria 
  • Implement the developed scenarios in different simulators for better assessments of results
• Step 6: Analyze and Discuss the Experimental Results 
  • Perform final discussion and choose the most suitable tool that matches your scenarios and application needs

Further to prove the requirement of the add-on methodological approach, here we have given the procedure to compare the most cited WSN simulators. Here, we have listed the steps of a methodological process in the application development phase. 

Application of the proposed methodological process

• Step 1: Found the required criteria
• Focus on basic WSN simulator criteria simulator type, nature, wireless medium models, license, platform, and user interface
• Step 2: Form the environment for the experiment 
  • Develop the experimental environs in various systems for simulators evaluation
  • For instance:
    • Operating System 
      • Microsoft Windows (version 10.0.14393)
      • Linux Ubuntu (16.04 LTS)
    • Installation Requirements:
      • Processor – Intel(R) Core (TM) i7-7500U CPU @ 2.70GHz 
      • Memory –16 GB RAM 
      • 909 GB (Windows disk allocation)
      • 915 GB (Linux disk allocation) 
• Step 3: Assess the qualitative criteria
  • Assess the simulator based on qualitative criteria such as energy utilization in simulator design
• Step 4: Model the scenarios for testing
  • Assess the efficiency of the selected simulator along with their modeling capacity and energy usage
  • Measure the efficiency in terms of memory and CPU utilization, scalability, execution time, etc. 
    • If you choose mesh topology for WSN, the size may vary in different testing scenarios
• Step 5: Execute the scenarios 
  • Evaluate the CPU usage for every 100s of simulation
  • The outcome will vary for various BCs

As mentioned earlier, we analyze and compare the simulators thoroughly based on their supporting features to select appropriate code development tools. For illustration purposes, here we have compared the two most important simulators for wireless sensor networks. In this, we have chosen some significant features of WSN such as simulator type, nature, design mode, mobility models, channel models, heterogeneity, supporting languages, platforms, etc. 

Through this analysis, we can identify apt tools which satisfy the needs of research. Moreover, if you are interested to know the specification of other important tools and then connect with us. We will guide you to choose the optimal one for your project development. 

Comparison of WSN simulator criteria 

• OMNeT++ / INET Framework
  • Design Mode – Single-level
  • Simulator Nature – Simulator
  • License – INET models by LGPL or GPL (academic purposes)
  • Simulator Type – Discrete-event
  • Platform – Mac OS, Linux, and Windows
  • Heterogeneity – Yes 
  • User Interface – in-built GUI
  • Modeling Availability – Yes 
  • Languages – NED and C++
  • Wireless Medium Model – Path loss Models 
    • Fading(nakagami, rayleight and 2-ray ground, rician)
    • Log-normal shadowing 
    • Freespace
  • Mobility Model – Yes
• TOSSIM
  • Design Mode – Single-level
  • Simulator Nature – Emulator
  • License – BSD 
  • Simulator Type – Discrete-event
  • Platform – Windows and Linux
  • Heterogeneity – No
  • User Interface – TinyViz (GUI)
  • Modeling Availability – Yes
  • Languages – NesC, C++, and Python
  • Wireless Medium Model – Path loss and Other Models
    • Log-normal shadowing
    • Noise Modelling
  • Mobility Model – Yes (MOB-TOSSIM)

In addition, we have also elaborately discussed the above-specified tools. The scenarios of WSN are typically reliant on application. So, it led to tight coupling among the layers of the networking model using best simulator for wireless sensor networks. To cope with issues, we need to choose dedicated tools which seamlessly handle the dependencies. 

Our developers have suggested that the following OMNET++ and TOSSIM are great in capturing dependencies. Therefore, we have given the significant specialization of these tools which make them more suitable for wireless sensor networks. 

Best Simulators for Wireless Sensor Networks

TOSSIM

Generally, TOSSIM is a TinyOS emulator as well as a discrete event simulator. And, it follows a bit-level approach which generates events for every bit (transmitted and received). The other general characteristics are given as follows, 

• Ability to run nesC code on a TinyOS/MICA
• Enable real physical components emulation (via hardware disruption mapping on discrete events)
• Low data transfer rate (about 40 kbps) for wireless applications

In actual fact, TOSSIM has the main objective to perform behavior exploration on TinyOS applications instead of QoS parameters of new protocols. Here, we have given you other important aspects of TOSSIM.

• Constrained with bit-level granularity
  • Perform channel sampling at bit-level
  • Increase the overheads due to CSMA standard
  • Reduce the performance while over traffic
• Able to simulate network about 1000 motes/nodes

OMNET++ 

Basically, OMNET++ is a discrete event simulator that is popularly known for its modularity. 

And, it is developed in the C++ programming language. Further, it is also easy to learn and code which makes the developer’s first choice for WSN projects. 

• Recent Up-gradation – Comprises more models for WSN
  • For instance: Mobility model/framework
• Include GUI library (debugging, tracing, and animation)
  • Disadvantage – Insufficient in protocols availability

In the aspect of real-time use-cases, this tool applies to developing different MAC protocols and localization in consensus projects. In this, the required software is openly available on the internet. 

• Capable to create own models where researchers have developed many available models but it doesn’t share a common interface. So, it is hard to combine together
• For instance: the above specified MAC protocols and localization in the consensus project are not compatible

We hope that the above specified systematic review, methodological approach, comparative study of simulators criteria, and best WSN simulators are quite useful for your WSN project development. Further, we also provide you complete support to select your Best Simulator for the Wireless Sensor Networks project along with code execution service. So, if you are interested to know other information about our services then communicate with us. We will achieve your requirements in all phases of your WSN research.

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