Network simulation for powerline protocols with direct code execution applied to DLC®-3000 SFN

The simulation of powerline communication (PLC) networks with larger numbers of nodes and with different channel conditions is essential for the development of the respective protocols, especially regarding medium access and network layer strategies. However, creating realistic models for network simulations is a complex process and demands high resources. Therefore, emulation and testbeds have been a necessary addition for testing and verification. In this paper, we propose a solution that brings both approaches closer together. Via the direct code execution (DCE) framework of the network simulator 3 (ns-3) project, we show how the machine code from real devices can be run within the network simulator, thus making it unnecessary to model the PLC protocol in another instance, namely the simulator. We will show results for the DLC®-3000 Single Frequency Network (SFN) PLC protocol and a proof of concept, that the same code performs on real PLC devices as well as within the simulator.