Design and implementation of ad hoc network protocol debugging environment

The multi-hopping and node mobility of an ad hoc network make it difficult to debug its protocol during implementation. It is unpractical to debug protocols on real radios at the beginning of the implementation. A debugging environment is very necessary and important for ad hoc network protocol implementation. This paper analyzes the special requirement for the debugging environment and provides a two-phase debugging method: first indoor and then outdoor debugging. To support indoor debugging, we construct the indoor debugging environment using our ad hoc network emulation systems. The emulation system is composed of one computer with a multi-port card and several network nodes. It can emulate the wireless channel and the mobility of the ad hoc network nodes (this means that dynamic topology changes are also emulated). The design and implementation details of our ad hoc network emulation system are presented. For the outdoor debugging phase, we built an ad hoc network testbed. We adopt the idea of a remote monitor to observe and control the behavior of moving nodes. The fixed monitor communicates with moving nodes through the ad hoc network protocols we design. Experience tells us that at the beginning of protocol implementation and debugging, an ad hoc network emulation system is indispensable. In addition, a remote monitor is a very useful tool for outdoor debugging.