A simulation architecture for a pico-cellular hybrid network

In this paper, we present a pico-cellular hybrid network simulator for communication with mobile stations. The network we are studying is a hybrid network that uses infrared impulses for in-house communications. The simulator is used here to study the performances of a wireless channel access method called AIR TDMA (Adaptive InfraRed Time Division Multiple Access). The essential parameters of the hybrid network such as the transmission rates on the backbone and on the wireless channel, the access methods to the two mediums, the trajectories and the speed of the mobile stations...are all parameters that are taken into account in our simulator. The presented simulator is modular: a central unit represents the hybrid network and each graphical unit simulates one of the areas in which movement takes place including the shape of these areas, the trajectories and the movement law of their mobile stations... . The set of presented curves concerns AIR TDMA: the average rate offered to each mobile station, the hand-over rate, the frequency of break in the wireless link and the time taken to localize a mobile station. This architecture has been planned to support the exploration of other sets of parameters. We have tried to show the importance of our access method for different forms of cellular coverage and for the loads adapted to each coverage