A Virtual Laboratory to Practice Mobile Wireless Sensor Networks: A Case Study on Energy Efficient and Safe Weighted Clustering Algorithm

In this paper, we present a virtual laboratory platform (VLP) baptized Mercury allowing students to make practical work (PW) on different aspects of mobile wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Our choice of WSNs is motivated mainly by the use of real experiments needed in most courses about WSNs. These experiments require an expensive investment and a lot of nodes in the classroom. To illustrate our study, we propose a course related to energy efficient and safe weighted clustering algorithm. This algorithm which is coupled with suitable routing protocols, aims to maintain stable clustering structure, to prevent most routing attacks on sensor networks, to guaranty energy saving in order to extend the lifespan of the network. It also offers a better performance in terms of the number of re-affiliations. The platform presented here aims at showing the feasibility, the flexibility and the reduced cost of such a realization. We demonstrate the performance of the proposed algorithms that contribute to the familiarization of the learners in the field of WSNs.