Simulation Platforms for Wireless Sensor Networks: How to Select?

Abstract

With the fast-track growth of IoT (Internet of Things), wireless sensor networks (WSN) has also gained attention. For effective communication among sensor nodes, protocols are being developed rapidly. Simulation is necessary for any network before deployment to check the functionality and detect the potential errors. Earlier recognition of issues can save both resources and time of network designers. Few simulation environments were already available before the development of WSN technology. Later on, a few other simulation environments were developed specifically for WSN. Simulation environments based on programming language C/C++ and MATLAB are reviewed in this paper. This paper also discusses the extensions of simulation environments. The main focus of this paper is to help novice researchers in choosing an appropriate simulation tool that fits their research criterion.