PeerfactSim.KOM: Take it back to the streets

Mobile peer-to-peer networks, utilizing ad hoc communication between hand-held communication devices, serve as an alternative to cellular networks for the deployment of applications. To evaluate a new communication mechanism in mobile peer-to-peer network, simulations constitute a useful and frequently applied evaluation technique. Besides initial simulations on plain and empty maps, it is crucial to evaluate if and how the developed communication mechanism performs in the envisioned scenarios dealing with obstacles as well as node mobility. Therefore, this paper introduces a framework that provides two procedures for the creation of arbitrary environments, ranging from simple environments to complex models of cities or regions. Additionally, the framework provides different strategies to model the mobility of nodes. Together with an extended version of PeerfactSim.KOM, a simulation platform is presented that supports the complete workflow for the simulation of mobile P2P networks. The simulation platform provides (i) the modeling of purpose-based environments based on SVG-images, (ii) the modeling of realistic environments based on data from Open Street Map, as well as (iii) synthetic and realistic mobility models.