HIPERSIM: A Sense Range Distinctive Simulation Environment for HiperLAN Systems

This paper presents the simulator “HIPERSIM” which was developed and used to examine the behavior of HIPERLAN (Type 1). HIPERSIM simulates the HIPERLAN network under various conditions, assuming that the communication range and the sense range (signal detection range) of a node are different. In a wireless LAN, like HIPERLAN, the medium access protocol, the hidden nodes, the packet forwarding and the power saving mechanism are important issues that significantly affect the overall performance. The intention is to provide a HIPERLAN specialized tool (HIPERSIM) which can simulate most of the features of this WLAN protocol, in order to examine the performance of HIPER-LAN. The main focus is to simulate the channel access mechanism accurately, so as to examine the effectiveness of the EY-NPMA protocol, and underline its advantages and the elements that need improvement. Also, in HIPERSIM, there is emphasis on the “hidden nodes” issue. More specifically, we distinguish between the communication range and the signal detection range of a node, since this is a characteristic of the wireless nature and it affects the network operation. The simulation results show that EY-NPMA is effective and suitable for WLANs. Probably there could be some improvement in order to avert the collisions close to the receiver. © 2003, SAGE Publications. All rights reserved.