Improvement of Simulative Analysis in Ad Hoc Networks

Abstract

Ad hoc networks present special issues that often makes classical approaches for network analysis insufficient. In this paper we propose a new methodology to study communication protocols and architectures in ad hoc networks. Usually, solutions for ad hoc scenarios are analyzed and evaluated through simulative tools. The paper shows limitations of the traditional simulative approach and the improvements that the Discrete Fourier Transform analysis can produce if it is applied on the results from simulations. The proposed methodology gets advantages (such as simplicity and flexibility) from simulative investigation approaches overcoming the great drawback of loss of information on rare events. In fact, it transfers the time-dependent measurements into the frequency domain allowing to point out the occurrence of events which take place only under particular conditions and to detect occasional misbehaviors of the system. For these reasons the presented technique is suitable for both protocol debugging and system performances evaluation.