PIoT: A Performance IoT Simulation System for a Large-Scale City-Wide Assessment

Abstract

Given the proliferation of sensors and actuators, evaluating the network performance of current and forthcoming city-wide Internet of Things (IoT) applications is a challenging task. To overcome this challenge, we created a large-scale simulator called PIoT over the years that can assess the performance of multiple millions of mobile/static IoT devices using a 4G/5G cellular infrastructure. In PIoT, different Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are defined and collected to produce data to evaluate applications and network performance. PIoT is an on-going academic simulator project, and its most recent version is accessible to the public through the user interface found on https://www.piotsimulation.com without any installation requirements. It uses a realistic database that contains the real locations and features of Base Stations (BSs) and the real locations of IoT user equipment devices. The interface can be used by operators and researchers to understand network behavior when deploying new applications or to gather data to feed artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms. The objective of this paper is to present a detailed description of the PIoT modeling architecture, as well as some use cases to help potential users understand the type of capabilities that are available when using the simulator. Limitations and comparisons with other popular engines are also included in the paper.