Wireless ad-hoc networking : analysis and validation of simulation results

A wireless Ad-hoc network consists of wireless nodes communicating without the need for a centralized administration, in which all nodes potentially contribute to the routing process. In this paper the experimental results obtained from establishing a small physical network are reported. Using OPtimised NETwork (OPNET) software simulator, physical results are then compared with those obtained from simulations. Correlation between the two sets of results is found to be satisfactory enough to validate the simulation technique and process. Given this validation, similar simulation techniques are used to perform an investigation of a larger scale Ad-hoc. The simulation results of the larger scale network confirm our previously obtained results. An important aspect of which is that the nature of the drop in throughput with respect to the number of nodes trying to communicate simultaneously with a single node, is linear.