An Inclusive survey of Network Simulators

Abstract

Simulator is a software program that models the behavior of a network which may be difficult to recreate in the real world. It is low cost mechanism which can be used to deploy a network or implement protocols and test the feasibility of the network. Simulators helps in understanding interactions between various systems, by calculating the interaction between the different network nodes or entities. The various attributes of the environment can also be modified in a controlled manner to assess the network protocols would perform under different environments. Sometimes it is nearly impossible to reproduce the wireless propagation environment in real wireless devices to present research idea. Computer assisted simulation can model real-life objects on a computer which can solve this problem. There are various simulators available to simulate the wireless network, but the choose the simulator is utmost important as after the simulation if the protocol shows significant result, the protocol can be implemented in the real world. Simulators can be performed in various fields like industry, academic or research work for different purposes. This paper compares the various versions of extensively use simulator i.e. Network Simulator.