Wireless Testbed Bonsai

Abstract

This paper focuses on the spatial scaling of wireless network behaviors, ranging from low-level signals to network protocol executions to high-level application behaviors. This task is complicated as wireless channels exhibit complex fading patterns across space and time. And there have been several instances of phase transitions, where wireless network protocols and applications that perform well at small scales fail to do so at higher scales. Presently, experimentation with wireless testbeds is preferred to simulations for obtaining high fidelity testing, but at the same time experimentation is also known to be more inconvenient and expensive, especially for large scale networks. We therefore investigate the ability of high fidelity spatial downscaling of such networks, for making more convenient the testing and predictability of designs for large scale networks. Specifically, we present necessary and sufficient conditions for high fidelity scaling of wireless networks and evaluate the feasibility of scaling an indoor multihop IEEE 802.11bnetwork by reducing the separation between the nodes by a constant factor. Our validation is in terms of experimental studies of down-scaling performed in the Kansei testbed at Ohio State University, and compare the performance at the physical, link, and messaging/dissemination layers before and after scaling.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 01, 2006
Accession Number
AD1001131

Entities

People

  • Anish K. Arora
  • Emre Ertin
  • Hongwei Zhang
  • Vinayak Naik

Organizations

  • Ohio State University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Attenuation
  • Communication Systems
  • Computer Networks
  • Electromagnetic Wave Propagation
  • Environment
  • Network Architecture
  • Network Protocols
  • Network Topology
  • Networks
  • Power Levels
  • Random Variables
  • Reliability
  • Routing Protocols
  • Throughput
  • Wave Propagation
  • Wireless Communications
  • Wireless Networks

Fields of Study

  • Computer science

Readers

  • Computer Networking
  • Distributed Systems and Data Platform Development
  • Ocean-Atmosphere Mesoscale Modeling, Data Assimilation, and Flux Boundary Layers

Technology Areas

  • Space