A Survey on Sensor Webs Simulation Tools Mehdi Mekni, Bernard Moulin Department of Computer Sciences and Software Engineering, Laval University Québec, QC, G1V 0A6, Canada mmekni@gmail.com , bernard.moulin@ift.ulaval.ca Abstract Currently, few real sensor web applications are being explored and some of them are yet to come. Meanwhile, developing and deploying prototypes in order to analyze the sensor web performance supposes a great effort. Consequently, simulation is fundamental to study sensor webs, and is being the common way to test new applications and protocols in this evolving research field. This fact has brought a recent growing number of simulation tools available to model sensor webs. In this paper, we provide background on a number of different sensor webs simulation tools and we discuss the advantages and the drawbacks of each. We also propose an evaluation methodology in order to assess the capabilities of each simulation tool. The results of the evaluation process are analyzed and the open research issues are pointed out providing for an opportunity of improvement of future sensor web simulators. 1. Introduction Recent advances in wireless communications and sensing technologies have enabled the development of low-cost, low-power, multi-functional sensor nodes that are small in size and which communicate over short distances [1]. Sensor webs are distributed network systems composed of hundreds of such sensor nodes [1]. Current and potential application domains for sensor webs include: military sensing, physical security, air traffic control, traffic surveillance, video surveillance, industrial and manufacturing automation, distributed robotics, environment monitoring, and building and structures monitoring. Once sensor webs are deployed, the management of such complex systems is a real challenge because of their limited energy, communication, and processing capabilities [1, 2]. In many cases, it is impractical to experiment on real sensor web systems; there are several reasons for this [1-3]. First, a proposed hardware platform, while theoretically possible, may not be yet manufactured because its fabrication may be constrained by technical or design limits [4]. Second, even if the hardware platform exists, it may be prohibitively expensive. An example of this is research application which requires hundreds or thousands of nodes to evaluate [2]. With current sensor nodes costing approximately one hundred of dollars, evaluating such research could cost thousands to tens of thousands of dollars [2]. Third, even if it is practical to evaluate research on the real hardware platform, it may not be practical to experiment in an appropriate environment [1]. An example of this are sensor webs which operate on glaciers, remote wildlife habitats, volcano monitoring, and other environments where in-situ sensing techniques are requires and with which it is expensive or dangerous to experiment [1, 3]. The selection of a simulation framework for any type of network is a critical task [5]. Indeed, this is particularly true for sensor webs, because of the diversity and complexity of the simulation scenario, protocols, limited capabilities, and elements involved [2]. Therefore, there is a need for an evaluation methodology which helps for the assessment of the simulation tools capabilities. In this paper, we provide a survey on sensor web simulation tools. Section 2 presents both general purpose network simulation packages and sensor webs specific simulation tools. Section 3 proposes an evaluation methodology for the assessment of the capabilities of the selected sensor web simulators. Section 4 analyses the results of the evaluation process and discusses the shortcomings of the available simulation platforms providing for an opportunity of improvement of future sensor webs simulators. Section 5 summarizes the fundamental ideas of this paper. 2. Sensor Web Simulation Tools: A Survey The survey was conducted by collecting information of existing simulation tools various information sources. The sources of information used include conference proceedings, research papers, vendor websites, input from the simulation team, and simulation practitioners. For each tool, the publicly The Second International Conference on Sensor Technologies and Applications 978-0-7695-3330-8/08 $25.00 © 2008 IEEE DOI 10.1109/SENSORCOMM.2008.13 581 The Second International Conference on Sensor Technologies and Applications 978-0-7695-3330-8/08 $25.00 © 2008 IEEE DOI 10.1109/SENSORCOMM.2008.13 574 Authorized licensed use limited to: National Chiao Tung University. Downloaded on December 24, 2008 at 06:37 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.