Survey on simulation tools for wireless mobile ad hoc networks

In today´s world, there has been an enormous increase in mobile devices ranging from tablets, iPads, laptops and personal digital assistances (PDAs). These small gadgets which are usually battery powered enable communication to take place using radio waves. There is no infrastructure such as an access point or base station that has to be in place for communication to happen. This peer-to-peer wireless networks enable communication to take place anytime and anywhere thus it is suited for use in emergency situations such as in battlefields and emergency medical rescue. For routing in this peer-to-peer network to happen, there is a routing protocol that will be deployed. Simulation of routing protocol have been done extensively in both wireless and wired networks. Simulation has proven to be a popular technique in networking because it provides an easy platform where new routing protocols can be tested and their performance checked against other well-known routing protocols at relatively less costs. The purpose of this research paper is to present some of the popular network simulators that can be used to simulate current and any proposed new routing algorithms for mobile ad hoc wireless networks. Popular network simulators that have discussed in this paper include NS-2, GLOMOSIM, J-SIM, OPNETT, OMNET++ and QUALNET together with their strengths and weaknesses.