Testing Applications in MANET Environments through Emulation

EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking

Table 1 Comparative of existing emulators.

Name	GUI	Real devices	Real code	Flexibility	Size of emulator	Initial budget	Scalable	Free
Castadiva	Yes	Routers, PDAs and computers	Yes	Yes	fits in a desktop	1000€	Yes	Yes
MobiEmu	No	Computers	Yes	Yes	fits in a room	3000€	Yes	Yes
mLab	No	No (is almost a simulator)	No	Yes	fits in a desktop	1000€	Yes	Yes
Carnegie Mellon University Wireless Emulator	Yes	computers, but needs FPGAs	Yes	Yes	fits in a desktop	3000€	Yes	No
ORBIT	No	Computers	Yes	Only mobility in grid.	Huge, needs a warehouse	10000€	Yes but very expensive	No
Seawind	Yes	Computers	No	No, only emulate two nodes	fits in a desktop	—	No	No
WHYNET	No	Hybrid simulator	Yes	Yes	fits in a desktop	1000€	Yes (by simulation)	No

GUI: a graphical interface for easy use of the emulator. Real Devices: Which devices can be used on the emulation tests? Real Code: Can users introduce real implementations of application and protocols on its emulations without changing anything, or must they rewrite the code to fit the emulator? Flexibility: Can any topology be implemented? Size of the Emulator: Can the emulator be deployed on a simple desktop of a lab, or does it need an entire room for its deployment? Initial Budget: The initial (approx.) inversion for generating a test-bed of 10 nodes. Scalable: Is it easy to increase the number of nodes without increasing the cost significantly? Free: Can it be used freely by anyone without purchasing?