Development of IEEE 802.11 WLAN network simulator using systemC

Abstract

IEEE 802.11 based Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) is becoming popular in home, enterprise and public access areas primarily due to their low cost, simplicity of installation and high data rates. Voice over IP (VoIP) is an alternative to the telephony network and could be seen as a replacement technology. Currently, the research trend of IEEE 802.11 system is expanded from data transmission to various applications such as VoIP over WLAN and real time location system (RTLS). To simulate these systems, the conventional simulation for network capacity and packet delay analysis is insufficient since dynamic phenomena like mobility, handoff and interference should be supported in simulator. That requests a more complex and more realistic simulator for IEEE 802.11 system. Modern data communication networks are extremely complex and do not lend well to theoretical analysis. Packet-level, or event driven simulation studies are usually carried out to better study the performance of network components, protocols, and their interaction. However, in order to simulate the hot issues of VoIP over WLAN, the conventional network simulators such as NS-2, have critical limitations in modeling and architecture. With this motivation, in this dissertation, a network simulator based on SystemC is presented. Using SystemC, the simulator can describe the simultaneous parallel operations of various network nodes. The work presented in this dissertation pursues one goal - the development of the IEEE 802.11 network simulator which can applicable to VoIP over WLAN, RTLS and etc. Using the developed network, the mobility performance of VoIP over WLAN and the performance of localization over WLAN are evaluated in this dissertation.