2012
Integrated Modeling and Simulation Framework for Wireless Sensor Networks
B. Wang and J. S. Baras
Proceedings of the 21st IEEE International Conference on Collaboration Technologies and Infrastructures (WETICE 2012- CoMetS track), pp. 268-273, Toulouse, France, June 25 - 27, 2012.
Abstract
Existing ad hoc system design methods for Wireless
Sensor Networks (WSNs) suffer from lack of reusability. In
addition, the interactions between the continuous-time physical
environments and WSNs have not been well studied. In this paper,
we propose a model-based systems design (MBSD) framework
for WSNs, which is a systematic methodology applying systems
engineering principles to enhance model reusability and collaborations
among multiple modeling domains. Firstly, we describe
a hierarchy of model libraries to model various behaviors and
structures of WSNs, including physical environments, physical
platforms, communication and computation components, system
services and applications. Based on the MBSD framework, we
introduce a system design flow to compose both continuoustime
and event-triggered modules to develop applications with
support for performance study by simulations. Next, we briefly
describe the main modules for physical platforms, the Media
Access Control (MAC) layer, wireless channels and physical
environments, which are developed using the Systems Modeling
Language (SysML), Simulink and Modelica. Finally, we use a
building thermal control system as the case study to demonstrate
the composability, reusability and flexibility of the proposed
MBSD framework.
