Visualization of Wireless Environment in NS-2 (VWE-NS2)

Abstract

The Network Simulator 2 (NS-2) is a popular and powerful simulation environment, and the number of NS-2 users has increased greatly in recent years. Although it was originally designed for wired networks, NS-2 has been extended to work with wireless networks, including wireless LANS, mobile ad hoc networks and sensor networks. The Network Animator (NAM) for NS-2 has not been extended for wireless visualization. However in this project a new visualization and animation tool is introduced for use with NS-2 wireless simulations. Visual analysis of a wireless environment is important due to three factors: 1) validating the accuracy of a mobility model’s output and/or the node topology files used to drive the simulation; 2) validation of new versions of the NS- simulator itself; and 3) analysis of the resulting NS-2 trace files.

Network protocol designers face difficult tasks, including simultaneously monitoring state in a potentially large number of nodes, understanding and analyzing complex message exchanges, and characterizing dynamic interactions with competing traffic. Researchers have explored network protocol visualization in many contexts, beginning with static protocol graphs and visualization of large-scale traffic, and more recently including simulation visualizations and editors. Network visualization tools allow designers to take in large amounts of information quickly, visually identify patterns in communication, and better understand causality and interaction. Visualization of Wireless Environment for NS-2 (VWE-NS2) is a network animator that provides packet-level animation, Packet statistics and Packet per Second graphs and time-event plots of protocol actions. This tool benefits from a close relationship with NS, which can collect detailed protocol information from a simulation. The VWE-NS2 uses preprocessing to visualize data taken directly from real network traces. This visualization tools will make protocol design and debugging easier.