On the Robustness of Simple Indoor MANET Simulation Models

We show that simple radio propagation and node mobility models widely used in MANET evaluation are not robust in indoor environments. Robust simulation models let researchers extrapolate simulation results and reach reliable conclusions about expected protocol performance. We experiment with two representative MANET routing protocols under different mobility and radio propagation models with decreasing levels of complexity. We show that the effects of successive simplifications to the node mobility and radio propagation models are not consistent across protocols. Moreover, even within the same protocol, the effects on performance can vary erratically as simulation parameters change. Our results raise troubling questions about the soundness of evaluations of MANET routing protocols based on simple radio propagation and node mobility