On the accuracy of omnet++ in the wireless sensornetworks domain: simulation vs. testbed

Abstract

In this paper we present a first effort in assessing the reliability of OMNeT++ and the MAC Simulator framework insimulating Wireless Sensor Networks. A collection of metricson the flooding algorithm running on a simple testbed made of few Tmote Sky is used as reference to evaluate the qualityof the simulation results. Our experiments show that simulation results tend to over-estimate the metrics collected inthe testbed. A correcting factor derived from experimental evidences must be considered in order to improve the simulation results. At the best of our knowledge, this is thefirst result about the accuracy of OMNet++ in the wireless sensor network domain.