A distributed simulator coordination platform and its application for integrating an IEEE 802.11 effective capacity-based admission control algorithm

Efficient coordination and management of radio resources in heterogeneous wireless networks is a key requirement for the realization of the Beyond 3G vision. In this context, radio resource optimization algorithms as well as infrastructures that allow for their performance evaluation are of great value. Towards these directions, the goal of the paper is twofold: first to present a testbed that enables integration of geographically distributed modules simulating different radio access technologies with independent realizations of inter-system optimization functions, and second to present the integration of an algorithm for admission control in IEEE 802.11 networks into the described platform. The algorithm, which is based on the notion of Effective Capacity and provides statistical overflow probability-related QoS guarantees, is validated using both a simulator in a stand-alone fashion and a simulator attached to the presented testbed. The integration of the algorithm on the testbed validates the testbed's capability to serve as a facility for optimization studies in simulated composite radio networks.