OpenNet: A simulator for software-defined wireless local area network

This study is motivated by a plan to install a software-defined wireless local area network (SDWLAN) on campus, which possesses a desired property that both data flow and device behaviors can be software-definable. Because the installation involves hundreds of access points, we must conduct simulations beforehand to verify the design and scalability of the target system. However, existing SDN simulator like Mininet does not support modeling of wireless channel and mobility. On the other hand, common network simulator like ns-3 only has limited support for software-defined controllers and does not fully implement handover process. We thus develop OpenNet, which connects Mininet to ns3 to enjoy both Mininet's advantage of controller compatibility and ns-3's ability in the wireless/mobility modeling. OpenNet also complements ns-3 by adding probe mechanism, which is missing in the current ns-3 implementation. Our simulation result demonstrates the effectiveness of OpenNet.