On the accuracy of MANET simulators

Abstract

The deployment of wireless applications or protocols in the context of Mobile Ad-hoc NETworks (MANETs), often requires to step through a simulation phase. For the results of the simulation to be meaningful, it is important that the model on which is based the simulator matches as closely as possible the reality. In this paper we present the simulation results of a straightforward algorithm using several popular simulators (OPNET Modeler, NS-2, GloMoSim). The results tend to show that significant divergences exist between the simulators. This can be explained partly by the mismatching of the modelisation of each simulator and also by the different levels of detail provided to implement and configure the simulated scenarios.