Snapshot of MAC, PHY and Propagation Models for IEEE 802.11 in Open-Source Network Simulators

Simulation is an essential component of the validation chain in the design of network protocols. Indeed, while simulation is not the only tool used for data networking research, it is extremely useful because it often allows research questions and prototypes to be explored at many orders-of-magnitude less cost and time than that required to experiment with real implementations and networks. In this report, we focus on the simulation of IEEE 802.11 Physical (PHY) and Medium Access Control (MAC) layers and provide a survey of current IEEE 802.11 network simulators. We believe that such survey will help network researchers to select the best simulator according to the requirements of their simulations. Furthermore, we present a detailed description of the YANS prototype network simulator, and especially its physical layer implementation, which will be partly ported in the upcoming NS-3 network simulator.