802.11 wireless experiments in a virtual world

This paper describes the design and implementation of an 802.11 wireless laboratory within a Multi-User Virtual Environment (MUVE). The laboratory allows students and lecturers to create their own 802.11 scenarios by: i) selecting and placing components such as base stations and laptops within the immersive 3D landscape; ii) defining how traffic flows between these different network components; and iii) where appropriate specifying the movements of nodes. This information is sent outside of the MUVE and translated into a set of commands for the ns2 simulator, which then generates the simulation. The results of the simulation are sent back to the MUVE, where a 3D animation of the wireless communication is presented to learners interacting with the system. Learners are therefore able to set up and observe wireless phenomena such as the hidden and exposed node problems and to experiment by changing parameters such as packet loss and RTS/CTS threshold. The enabling framework behind the laboratory takes advantage of language independent, distributed resource management and stateful interaction through the use of web services.