Novel Cross-Layer Simulation Platform to Include Realistic Channel Modeling in System Simulations

Up to date wireless local access network (WLAN) simulation platform development efforts have concentrated either on the physical (PHY) layer or the medium access control (MAC) layer. The obtained performance is thus biased in that one layer has more weight than the other. On the other hand, an allinclusive simulator based on the actual platforms could be too much resource consuming. Simulator architectures are indeed tailor-made for one of the layers and thus not convenient for the other. That is why we propose a new IEEE 802.11n/ac multi-user simulation platform with reduced complexity. This platform is composed of an all inclusive PHY layer module and an elaborated MAC layer module working in a symbiotic manner. Both PHY and MAC layers being finely represented, an accurate modeling of reality is made possible. This PHY+MAC simulation platform can thus be an interesting tool for testing PHY-MAC cross-layer solutions for WLANs.