Military radio and tactical MANET simulation
NetSim supports the unique simulation requirements of the defence community, including R&D of network protocols and architectures crucial to military communication networks. It is used by defence organisations, government agencies, and the military to model complex, dynamic tactical networks and predict communication performance in the theatre of operations.
Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs) are a family of routing protocols developed to route traffic through mobile wireless networks. These networks place special requirements on routing protocols, due to the unpredictable nature of the radio links and the changing topology caused by node mobility. NetSim simulates multi-hop, bandwidth-constrained MANETs.
Capabilities
From wireless planning to detailed diagnostics, across the full radio fleet.
Wireless planning
Evaluate end-to-end performance metrics such as connectivity, signal quality, network formation time, throughput, latency, and error.
Radio types
Hand-held, Manpack, Vehicular (AFV, ICV), Naval (Ship), and Airborne (Aircraft, Drone, Missile) radios.
Battlefield communications
Simulate voice, image, video, situational awareness, command & control messages, and data over VHF, UHF, L-Band, and S-Band radios with various waveforms.
Analysis tools
Overall performance summaries, detailed statistics, plots of metrics over time, route tracing, radio measurements, and diagnostics.
The tactical protocol stack
Routing, medium access, waveform, and mobility, modelled layer by layer.
Ad hoc routing
- OLSRv1 (RFC 3626), OLSRv2 (RFC 7181), AODV, DSR, ZRP
- Interconnect multiple orthogonal MANETs
TDMA and DTDMA
- TDMA: Link 16 based time division multiple access
- DTDMA: slot allocation via a GUI slot planner or algorithmically
- Variable slot size and guard time
- Dynamic node participation: nodes join or leave at runtime
Waveforms and propagation
- VHF, UHF, L-Band, S-Band; single channel, narrow or wideband
- Modulation: GMSK, BPSK, QPSK, 16-QAM, 64-QAM, CPM, MSK
- Code rates 1/2, 2/3, 3/4, 5/6; transmit power 0.1 W to 100 W
- Range-based reachability or pathloss, fading, and shadowing
- Interface with external tools for terrain modelling
Node movement
- File-based custom patterns, Random Walk, Random Waypoint, Pedestrian, Group mobility
- Movement in all three dimensions
- Speeds up to 2000 km/hr
Single-band jammer
Model electronic warfare conditions by introducing a configurable interference source into the DTDMA network.
- The jammer in the NetSim DTDMA module is a single-band device that generates interference, lowering the SINR and potentially causing packet errors.
- It does not participate in communication like regular nodes; it is modelled purely as an interference source.
- On and off times can be customised, allowing multiple on/off intervals during the simulation.
- Interference range can be set to a fixed distance or based on the network's pathloss model.
- Interference occurs when the jammer's frequency overlaps with the transmitter's frequency; its power depends on the overlap and the range model.
Antenna models in TDMA
NetSim's TDMA library supports omni-directional, sector, and external antenna patterns.
Omni-directional
Radiates equally in all directions with 0 dB gain, ideal for uniform coverage in every direction.
Sector
A 2D parabolic pattern focuses signals in a specific direction, with configurable beamwidth, gain, and front-to-back ratio. Gain is computed from the angles between transmitter and receiver, factoring in orientation, distance, and the boresight angle.
External patterns (CSV)
Use measured or predefined antenna patterns supplied in a CSV file of gain values across azimuth angles Phi (0 to 360 degrees). At runtime the Phi angle between transmitter and receiver is computed and the matching gain is looked up, separately for each end.
Built to be extended
NetSim ships with protocol source code in C. Modify the stack and develop your own custom protocols and waveforms.
Related applications
See NetSim applied to specific defence communication scenarios.