A new prototype development modeling-simulation of sensor networks

This paper presents a simulation prototype design for wireless sensor networks (WSNs). It allows the performance evaluation (e.g., packet delivery rate, transmission latency and energy consumption) at high level, but with elaborate models of the hardware and software of sensor nodes. Many hardware components are modeled and the IEEE 802.15.4 standard is implemented. The prototype uses a clock based synchronization mechanism to support simulations with cycle accurate communication and approximate time computation. The performances have been compared with NS-3 and we find that the similar result (deviation less than 5%) at the same abstraction level, and tow time faster than NS-3. Moreover, with a hardware and software co-simulation feature, we have more detailed modeling of sensor nodes.