A cross-layer simulator for industrial wireless communication systems

The paper presents a network simulator specifically designed for the analysis of real-time wireless networks in an industrial control context, and for time-space localization applications. Critical issues associated to physical components are accounted for, together with the performance of the communication channel in an interfering environment. A comparison toward already available simulation schemes is provided in order to show the importance associated to the above aspects in the accuracy of simulation results. In particular, it is seen that random processing delays and an accurate implementation of communication protocol models both represent critical aspects that deeply affect accuracy. Real-life experiments support the models and the theory discussed.