SenNetSim: A GUI-Based Simulator for Sensor Networks

Sensor Networks have been receiving increasing attention from the research and development communities for their wide range of applications in areas such as security, surveillance, environmental monitoring and health care. To evaluate the solution to a problemn in this area, it is often infeasible to have a practical deployment of a sensor network. In such cases, simulations in the form of computer software programs are employed. SenNetSim is a novel Graphical User Interface (GUI) based simulator which provides a framework to model a sensor network for coverage applications. SenNetSim is composed of four components - the main application window, the control panel, the sensor library, and the graph window. The main application window, shown in Figure 1, allows the user to add and remove sensor nodes and define the region to be covered. As the Application is document-based, there may be several main windows open at the same time. However, the user can work only on one window at a time, the current working window is referred to as the current document. The control panel, shown in Figure 2 is a floating palette which displays the attributes corresponding to the objects in the current document. It has four sections that provide information on the current document, selected node(s), grid settings, and covers. A toggle button allows the user to close a particular section when it is not required.