Tool-based performance evaluation of the blackboard communication system

Abstract

This paper presents the integration of an existing real-world, realtime, ad-hoc communication system code into a discrete event simulation (DES). This embedded simulation environment can be used to analyze the communication system's behavior in regard to throughput, delay, dynamic network reconfiguration and more. The system in question is the blackboard communication system (BBCS). It is a development of the group for real-time systems and robotics of the Technische Universität Berlin (TUB). It was used in the European Project COMETS which integrated several unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in cooperative fleet and is still used in several mobile systems within European robotics groups. The DES framework of choice is OMNeT++. This paper shows how the integration of the existing BBCS code into OMNeT++ is done and how it can be used to validate the BBCS. The underlying simulation model and the specific integration solutions are pointed out. The paper presents furthermore a multi UAV scenario that was analyzed in regard to the delay distribution and reliability in a dynamic reconfigured wireless network. Copyright 2007 ICST.