SWiMNet: A Scalable Parallel Simulation Testbed for Wireless and Mobile Networks

We present a framework, called SWiMNet, for parallel simulation of wireless and mobile PCS networks, which allows realistic and detailed modeling of mobility, call traffic, and PCS network deployment. SWiMNet is based upon event precomputation and a combination of optimistic and conservative synchronization mechanisms. Event precomputation is the result of model independence within the global PCS network. Low percentage of blocked calls typical for PCS networks is exploited in the channel allocation simulation of precomputed events by means of an optimistic approach. Various experiments were conducted to study the performance and scalability of SWiMNet using a realistic mobility model and executed on a cluster of workstations. Experimental results indicate that our parallel simulation model yields good speedup, and significantly reduces the execution time compared to a sequential implementation. Finally, an analytical study of our PCS simulation model is also presented and compared with the experimental results. Our model is found to be consistent with the analytical study.