Effects of Detailed OFDM Modeling in Network Simulation

Abstract

In mobile ad hoc network (MANET) studies, it is imperative to use highly detailed device models as they provide high-layer protocols with good prediction of underlying wireless communication performance. However, such studies often use abstract models for execution speed and simplicity. This article first shows that physical layer variables, including path loss, shadowing, multipath, and Doppler, have significant effects on the predicted overall networking performance. It then proposes an approach to simulate details of wireless propagation and radio characteristics in networking studies while still maintaining a reasonable simulation execution time. Through runtime performance studies with detailed orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) Simulink/MATLAB models and the QualNet network simulator, it is shown that the proposed approach can improve the simulation runtime performance by three to four orders of magnitude without compromising the fidelity of simulation results.