omnet++ Inet - Simulating dynamic access point behaviour

Question

I have to create a particular simulation for a college project. The simulation should feature several mobile nodes cyclically switch between 802.11 access point and station modes. While in station mode, nodes should read the SSIDs of access points around them, and then they should change their SSID in AP mode accordingly. There is no need for connections or data exchange between the nodes beside the SSID reading.

Now, I've been through Omnet/Inet tutorials/documentation (all two of them), and I feel pretty much stuck. What I could use right now is someone confirming my understanding of the framework giving me some directions on how exactly I should proceed.

From what I understand is Inet does not implement any direct/easy way to do what I'm trying to do. Most examples have fixed connections declared in NED files and hosts with a fixed status (AP or STA) defined in the .ini file.

So my question is basically how do I do that: do I need to extend a module (say, wirelessHost), modifying its runtime behaviour, or should I implement a new application (like UDPApp) to have my node read other SSIDs and change his accordingly? And what is the best way to access an host's SSID?

Answer 1

You may utilize two radios for each mobile node e.g. **.mobilenode[*].numRadios = 2 (see also example in /inet/examples/wireless/multiradio/).

The first radio operates as AP **.mobilenode[*].wlan[0].mgmtType = "Ieee80211MgmtAPSimplified" which has to adapt its SSID.

The second radio serves as STA **.mobilenode[*].wlan[1].mgmtType = "Ieee80211MgmtSTA". Now, you have to sub-class Ieee80211AgentSTA which handles the SSID scanning procedure and has to change the first radio's SSID upon new SSID detection. Then you utilize the adopted sub-class within the simulation. Finally, active scanning has to be activated **.mobilenode[*].wlan[1].agent.activeScan = true.