Development framework for prototyping heterogeneous multi-radio wireless networks

In order to develop and validate network protocols and architectures, proper tools are required to validate the design and to analyze the various aspects of the architecture or its components. This is typically addressed by measurements using real hardware, via simulations or emulations or by using a combination thereof. In this paper we present our development framework to implement and validate our WiBACK architecture. Our key focus is to implement the architecture on real embedded hardware. But, in order to validate protocols or to analyze possible scalability issues, larger scenarios must be considered while validating the same source code implementation. Our approach combines real hardware radio interfaces with emulated wireless interfaces in real-time and thus allows us to use well-known measurement tools to inject and analyze network traffic pattern or protocols. We will discuss our decision, describe the framework, present results and discuss experiences gained by using our NetEMU-based framework as a basis for multiple larger, i.e. EU, projects.