Studying Real-time Traffic in Multi-hop Networks Using the EMANE Emulator: Capabilities and Limitations

Abstract

In this paper, we study the fidelity of an open-source software emulator to provide reliable estimation of performance for real-time traffic in mobile ad-hoc networks. We emulate the IEEE 802.11 MAC/PHY (DCF) using the EMANE software emulator deployed on a cluster and run experiments for different multi-hop wireless scenarios with the Optimized Link State Routing (OLSR) protocol. As an instance of real-world usage scenario, we study the performance of real-time streaming media over a mesh network supported by OLSR. In particular, we study the effect of mobility and background traffic on carried load, delay and jitter. As another application, we analyze the impact of the wireless network on the self-similarity of aggregate traffic. Using traffic source models with high variability, we show that the aggregate traffic in the wireless network is self-similar and hence preserves its burstiness at larger time scales. The results are consistent with those obtained from high-fidelity simulation within some limitations of the emulator.