Dynamic routing framework for OMNeT++ based Hardware-In-The-Loop (HITL) network simulation

This paper presents a dynamic routing framework for Hardware-In-The-Loop (HITL) simulation based on the OMNeT++ simulator. A Hardware-In-The-Loop (HITL) network simulation connects the real and the virtual (simulated) networks. The routing protocol studied is Optimized Link State Routing (OLSR) that is used primarily for mobile ad hoc network (MANET) routing. The OMNeT++ simulator provides a basic HITL framework to connect a real network with the simulator. The existing HITL framework of OMNeT++ supports only static routes, where routes are added manually for virtual and real nodes. In a MANET, the network nodes are mobile and hence the routing tables are dynamically updated. In order to enable HITL simulations for MANET systems, there is a need to provide dynamic routing in HITL. The routing protocol used in a simulation study should run across virtual and real networks and build routes dynamically. In this paper, we describe the architecture and implementation for achieving dynamic routing using the OLSR protocol. Different scenarios with various combinations of virtual and real nodes to validate dynamic routing in HITL have been studied, with network sizes up to 36 nodes.