Heterogeneous wireless access networks analysis from simulation to implementation

The effects of the coexistence of different wireless access technologies in the same area are not very easy to be evaluated and analysed. If these different networks interact with each other and form a heterogeneous wireless network, the analysis becomes even more difficult. Different approaches are possible: to build a pilot heterogeneous network (but, if new technologies or, at least, existing technologies with new interoperability capabilities are being used, this implies implementing new blocks), to simulate one using an adequate simulation tool or to emulate some of the new blocks or network sections and to interconnect them with a real network from an existing technology. The present paper intends to investigate some of the difficulties and some of the advantages of these approaches and to illustrate them with the methods used in the RIWCoS and SAWHAU projects.