Design and application of a DEVS-based network simulator for mobile routing protocols

Mobile ad hoc wireless networks (MANETs) are autonomous collections of mobile nodes communicating via wireless antennas. Formal verification of routing protocols for MANETs requires modeling of every part correctly to verify. The characteristics of MANETs that bring challenge to the task of modeling are node mobility, scalability and broadcast. Consequently, to cope with management of such networks in presence of ever increasing complexity, various decentralized and centralized approaches are being used to address private and public organizations demands.To bring solutions to MANET challenges , simulators generating static topology such as ns-2, Glomosim, Omnet++, Qualnet and Opnet are ideal platforms for studying small MANET networks, but incapable of modeling and testing large-scale and dynamic structured networks. Furthermore, due to lack of hierarchy and abstraction in their structure, it is difficult to create, manage and compute large models.In this study, a parallel and distributed network simulator is developed to bring solutions to MANET systems by using Discrete Event System Specification (DEVS) formalism. Developed simulator is called MANET-DEVS in which network model is defined with its components (e.g. nodes and links) and their hierarchical structure.Using the DEVS hierarchical model composition concept, we develop simulation models of networks with varying topologies and scales. For example, we will use clusters to study its impact on reducing communication and increasing performance. The explicit and hidden behaviors of these networks are observed under various experimental configurations e.g., nodes and links are assigned different capacities. Topology generator is developed and validation experiments are also done.