Emulation of Large-Scale LTE Networks in NS-3 and CORE: A Distributed Approach

Long Term Evolution (LTE) is a promising technology to be used for Mission-Critical Networks (MCNs); emulating such technology is important to test different scenarios before real deployment. However, using the Network Simulator (NS-3) to simulate large-scale LTE networks has proven to be very time consuming. Hence, there is a need to speed up such simulations in order to facilitate real-time emulation and interaction of large-scale LTE networks with external systems. In this paper, we propose a new approach to enable the emulation of large-scale LTE networks by employing distributed topologies along with the Message Passing Interface (MPI) protocol. The proposed approach is integrated with the Common Open Research Emulator (CORE) to enable exchange of real-time traffic between the simulated LTE network and Hardware-In-the Loop (HIL). Performance studies were carried out to evaluate the scaling performance of emulated LTE networks in real time. The results show that distributed implementation succeeds in running scenarios within the wall-clock time

Implementation of a smart grid communication system compliant with IEEE 2030.5

Energy utilities are constantly under pressure to meet the growing and complicated energy demands. The traditional energy grid allows for one-way communication of energy usage between customers and the utilities. This does not allow the utilities to have control or to suggest any changes in consumption based on the energy data they obtain. In this paper, we propose and implement an innovative two-way communication system between the transformer agent (TA), attached to a neighborhood's electric transformer, and its customer agents (CAs), that are attached to each house using inexpensive and common-use devices and modules. In this context, different houses communicate their energy usage, while an electric transformer relays action requests from the energy utility's headquarters. This enables the real-time tracking of energy usage by both the consumers and the utility. Therefore, the efficiency of energy generation and distribution is enhanced, and consumers are empowered to make smarter decisions about their consumption. In our system, Raspberry Pi3 modules are used to represent CAs, while an Intel Edison is used to represent the TAs. CAs form a self- healing mesh network using the high data rate Wi-Fi in mesh mode while TAs communicate with the utility headquarters using LTE. The proposed system is compliant with the IE

Simulating large-scale networks for public safety: Parallel and distributed solutions in NS-3

Due to the critical importance of Public Safety Networks (PSNs), they must have regular on-site performance evaluation. Conducting tests on real systems are expensive in terms of money, efforts, resources, and time. On the other hand, simulation and emulation tools are very important in the design and modeling of engineering systems. They can play a significant role in reducing the high expenses of such periodic tests. NS-3 is a widely used network simulator with a lot of capabilities. However, simulating realistic and large-scale PSNs reveals many limitations in the performance of simulation and urges for methods to speedup the simulations. Despite the exerted efforts in creating distributed simulators, less work that targets wireless networks is done. In this paper, we survey the different methods to enhance the simulation performance including parallel and distributed solutions in the PSN context. We also propose a framework to evaluate and test PSNs in real-time manner. This paper opens the door for future work in achieving better simulations, in terms of reliability and consumed time, for PSNs' large-scale networks