How to Study Wireless Mesh Networks: A hybrid Testbed Approach

Simulation is the most famous way to study wireless an mobile networks since they offer a convenient combination of flexibility and controllability. However, their largest disadvantage is that the gained results are difficult to transfer into reality since not only the abstraction of the upper network layer are typically high, but also the environment of mobile and wireless networks is very complex. This is due to two reasons. First there are typically many simplifications in the models of the upper networking layers, and second the environment of mobile and wireless networks is in particular complicated and thus difficult to be considered in all details. In this paper we introduce UMIC-mesh, a hybrid testbed approach, that consists of real mesh nodes and a virtualization environment. On the one hand the virtualization allows the development and testing of software as if it was executed on real mesh routers, but in a more repeatable and controllable way. On the other hand the results and conclusions gained by a software evaluation in the testbed can be easily transferred into reality, since the testbed represents a high degree of realism.