Simulation of mobile wireless ad hoc networks for emergency situation awareness

Mobile self-organizing ad hoc networks (MANETs) can significantly enhance the capability to coordinate the emergency actions as well as monitor contaminated areas, explore unmanned space, inspect and control working environments. The management of networks that can dynamically and freely organize into temporary topologies raises interesting problems, that are particularly challenging for networks formed by mobile devices. Due to the inherent complexity of these systems, the development of applications relying on mobile network nodes and wireless communication protocols would be greatly simplified by the use of specific tools for supporting testing and performance evaluation. Modeling and simulation are widely used in the design and development of wireless ad hoc networks. In this paper we model mobile ad hoc network (MANET) using discrete event systems methodology (DEVS) and describe the functionality and performance of the Java-based simulation tool for the performance evaluation of self-organizing and cooperative networks for emergency situation awareness. The simulator can provide a useful support for the verification of the design of a network system, employed communication protocols, control and coordination algorithms, allowing the user to display a step-by-step evolution of the network in a suitable graphical interface. The practical case studies are provided to illustrate the operation and performance of the presented software.