QOMB: A Wireless Network Emulation Testbed

In this paper we present QOMB, a testbed we designed and implemented for the evaluation of wireless network systems, protocols and applications. The testbed uses the wireless network emulation set of tools QOMET so as to reproduce in a wired network, in real time, the wireless network conditions corresponding to a given scenario. In this context QOMET also provides support for features such as realistic virtual 3D environments, and node mobility generation. The infrastructure of QOMB is StarBED, the large-scale network experiment testbed at the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Hokuriku Research Center, in Ishikawa, Japan. The multi-hop wireless network emulation experimental results related to OLSR performance analysis in mesh networks and MANETs illustrate the main features and the usability of QOMB.