DEVS modeling of mobile wireless ad hoc networks

Ad hoc networks are self-organizing wireless systems conformed by cooperating neighboring nodes that conform networks with variable topology. Analyzing these networks is a complex task due to their dynamic and irregular nature. Cellular Automata (CA), a very popular technique to study self-organizing systems, can be used to model and simulate ad hoc networks, as the modeling technique resembles the system being modeled. Cell-DEVS was proposed as an extension to CA in which each cell in the system is considered as a DEVS model. The approach permits defining models with asynchronous behavior, and to execute them with high efficiency. We show how these techniques can be used to model mobile wireless ad hoc networks, making easy model definition, analysis and visualization of the results. The use of Cell-DEVS permitted us to easily develop new experiments, which allowed us to extend routing techniques for inter-networking and multicast routing, while permitting seamless integration with traditional networking models.