Survey on Simulation Tools for Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks

Simulation is economical because it can carry out experiments without the actual hardware and provides a good compromise between complexity and accuracy. Simulation can be done by using the network simulators implemented in software which are valuable tools for researchers to develop, test and diagnose network protocols. Simulation is used to verify and evaluate the performance of networks. Research on Network depends on the following techniquesAnalytical model, Emulation, Testbed and Simulation to measure the behavior and performance of protocols for wired/wireless networks. There are many different network simulators available; it is extremely difficult to choose an appropriate tool for performance testing without the complete analysis of existing tools. This paper presents the short survey about network simulators for Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks (MANETs). It helps the researchers to find a simulation model that is reliable and efficient. We have described four different network simulators (NS-2, OMNET++, NCTUns, GlomoSim) features, advantages, disadvantages of and the comparisons of them. KeywordsDiscrete-Event Simulation, Emulation, Open Source, Testbed.