MANET Viewer III: 3D Visualization System for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

Abstract

Mobile ad-hoc networks (MANET) are P2P networks, where mobile nodes communicate with each other using wireless links. As the communication is done by wireless links, and each node has a routing function, it is difficult to grasp the network topology and routing path. It becomes even more difficult when the number of nodes is increased. In previous research, we proposed MANET Viewer II. However, in MANET Viewer II, the problems were that a communication method was inefficient, and time synchronization among nodes was inaccurately. Furthermore, the visualization was only supported to 2 dimension (2D) visualization. In this paper, we propose a 3 dimension (3D) visualization system for MANETs with an efficient communication function, accurate time synchronization function, and 3D visualization function. The proposed system can mainly visualize the network topology, state of nodes, and packet flows in MANET using mobile PCs and wireless LAN cards. The multi-hop communication function needed for visualization of MANET was also implemented on the application layer. For visualization of network topology, we implemented two modes: GPS mode and manual mode. We verified by experiments that a log collection time was reduced, and an accurate time synchronization was realized compare with MANET Viewer II. Furthermore, we showed an efficiency of 3D visualization.