T-SIMn: Towards the High Fidelity Trace-Based Simulation of 802.11n Networks

In this paper, we describe the design, implementation and evaluation of a new framework for the trace-based evaluation of 802.11n networks, which we call T-SIMn. We first develop novel techniques for collecting and processing traces for 802.11n networks that incorporate Frame Aggregation (FA). We then demonstrate that the simulator portion of our framework (SIMn) accurately simulates throughput for one, two and three-antenna Physical Layer Data Rates in 802.11n with FA. Finally, we evaluate the T-SIMn framework (including trace collection) by collecting traces using an iPhone which is representative of a wide variety of one antenna devices. We show that our framework can be used to accurately simulate these scenarios and we demonstrate the fidelity of SIMn by uncovering problems with our initial evaluation methodology. We expect that the T-SIMn framework will be suitable for easily and fairly comparing algorithms that must be optimized for different and varying 802.11n channel conditions which are challenging to evaluate experimentally. These include rate adaptation, frame aggregation and channel bandwidth adaptation algorithms. git