Micro-benchmarking NS-2 and NS-3 network simulators using terrain aware radio propagation extension

Abstract

This paper presents an overview of few of the most used network simulators in academia. Also, computational performance is evaluated for a radio-wave propagation model in simulation scenarios for one of the most popular and widely used network simulators NS-2, and its new significantly different version NS-3. Additionally we present the differences between both simulators, and few major issues that need to be taken into account when porting a NS-2 model to NS-3, from a developer’s point of view. The results present a significant computational performance increase when using the NS-3 network simulator.