NEMAN: a network emulator for mobile ad-hoc networks

Abstract

Development of applications and protocols for mobile ad-hoc networks has always been a challenge. Specific characteristics such as frequent topology changes due to nodes moving around, popping up or being turned off, need to be considered from the earliest stages of development. Since testing and evaluation using genuine wireless devices is both expensive and highly impractical, other tools need to be used in the development phase. Simulators give a very detailed model of lower layers' behaviors, but code often needs to be completely rewritten in order to be used on actual physical devices. Emulators present a trade-off between real test beds and simulators, providing a virtual wireless network at the lowest layers, and yet allowing real code to be run on the higher layers. In this paper, we present such an emulation platform, called NEMAN, that allows us to run a virtual wireless network of hundreds of nodes on a single end-user machine. NEMAN has shown to be an important and very useful tool during development of different applications and protocols for our project, including a key management protocol and a distributed event notification service.

ViSim: A user-friendly graphical simulation tool for performance analysis of MANET routing protocols

“…In [6], authors presented an emulation platform called NEMAN that allows a virtual wireless network of hundreds of nodes to be run on a single end-user machine. NEMAN was shown to be an important and useful tool during the development of different applications and protocols for the authors' project, including a key management protocol and a distributed event notification service.…”

Challenges and techniques for video streaming over mobile ad hoc networks

“…We see that ns-2 is the most popular of the well-known simulation tools utilized in 37.5% of the simulation reports. The fraction entitled ''simulators other than ns-2'' include 11 reports from simulation, one from emulation (using NEMAN [123]) and one taking a purely analytical approach. These numbers are comparable with that presented in [124], where Kurkowski et al survey MANET simulation studies reported in papers published at MobiHoc during the years 2000-2005.…”

A Stance On Emulation And Testbeds, And A Survey Of Network Emulators And Testbeds

“…NCTUns [44], EmuNet [45], and DINEMO [46] use the TUN virtual network interfaces, which intercept packets after the IP protocol implementation. NEMAN [47] is a similar system, but it uses the TAP virtual network interfaces, which intercepts frames before they are handled to the network driver to be sent to the network. Of these systems, NCTUns and NEMAN are monolithic, while EmuNet and DINEMO are capable of being distributed.…”