Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Simulation of The Application Layer in NarrowBand
Simulation of The Application Layer in NarrowBand
DOI: 10.15598/aeee.v15i4.2454
Abstract. In this article, we would like to deal with ventional Ethernet technology, there are wireless radio
challenges and analysis approaches in the area of nar- technologies (Wi-Fi, WiMAX, LTE), Li-Fi technology,
row band communication networks. Especially those or powerline communication technologies (BPL, NPL).
networks which use TCP/IP protocol family. We also Also, wireless narrowband transmission technologies
present a new universal data generator for OMNeT++ form a large group.
simulation environment. We created this generator to
satisfy the evaluation, stress testing and benchmarking These narrowband technologies are characterized by
demands of more and more complex industrial and the a thin transmission channel (up to hundreds of kHz)
Internet of Things networks. We also present the meth- that creates a data channel with speeds of up to tens
ods for evaluation and comparison of results obtained of kb·s−1 . Latency ranges from hundreds of millisec-
from simulated and real TCP/IP based networks in this onds to single seconds. These transmission technolo-
article. gies are widely used in industrial networks for auto-
matic data transmission and, to a limited extent, for
control. Due to the rapid development of SmartGrids
and Advanced Metering Management technologies [5]
Keywords and [6] and their global deployment, there is also a need
of deploying TCP/IP services and applications on nar-
Industry 4.0, IoT, OMNeT++, simulation, rowband transmission technologies.
TCP/IP, traffic generator.
Applications and services operating in broadband
networks with sufficient transmission capacity differ
significantly from narrowband networks. It is common
1. Introduction that TCP protocol regulatory mechanisms, which are
based on feedback (latency, actual throughput, etc.)
In present time we can see a vast expansion of TCP/IP information, are very unreliable when deployed in nar-
protocols and their penetration into locations previ- rowband networks. The reason is the usage of both
ously ruled by simple binary systems and protocols (IR, transmission directions (upstream and downstream).
Modbus, IEC 60870-5-101, etc.). One of the main rea- The communication paths in both directions can be
sons is the boom of the Internet of Things (IoT) and quickly congested by network traffic, which results in
the deployment of modern communications [1] and [2] a significant increase in latency (up to tens of min-
and cybernetic technologies into the industry, gener- utes) and thus the inevitable breakdown of the TCP
ally referred to as Industry 4.0 [3]. The main reason connections. The current trend to optimize the TCP
for this expansion is the deployment of an increasing protocol rather for broadband and quite reliable lines
number of new services that require the transmission makes the situation even worse. Without proper modi-
and processing of an ever-increasing amount of data - fication, the deployment of TCP in this type of network
Big data issue [4]. is very problematic and inefficient [7] and [8].
We can see increasing diversity in TCP/IP transmis- Due to a vast number of TCP/IP applications and
sion technologies, which are used. In addition to con- services, it is complicated to verify their usability
c 2017 ADVANCES IN ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING 639
INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES AND SERVICES VOLUME: 15 | NUMBER: 4 | 2017 | SPECIAL ISSUE
for a particular technology. Due to this limitation, on the other hand, it takes much more time and com-
discrete simulation tools are used, such as OPNET (see putation resources to finish simulation task. One of
https://www.riverbed.com/gb/products/ the solutions to shorten simulation time is using less
steelcentral/opnet.html?redirect=opnet), complex models and maintain just an acceptable level
NS-3 (see https://www.nsnam.org/Overview/ of accuracy. This can be achieved with data genera-
what-is-ns-3/), OMNeT++ (see https: tors that do not work with a real-time communication
//omnetpp.org) to verify the deployment ca- scheme (protocol), but they inject only a specific bi-
pability of the protocol. trate into a network. This packet stream has a sig-
nificantly simpler scheme than a real protocol or ap-
For the latest tool mentioned, the OMNeT++, a uni-
plication (for example RENETO [10] or NS-3 models
versal data generator (UDG) was developed to create
[11]).
a simple SW tool to simulate and verify a particular
communication scheme on a specific communication The UDG is that kind of generator, which, unlike
technology. UDG can maintain dependency between its competitors, can ensure inter-linking between mes-
protocol packets, and thanks to a certain degree of ab- sages, thus more reliably simulate real-time data traffic
straction, the analysis and deployment is much less re- and still operate with a decent level of abstraction.
source demanding when compared to full and complex
real protocol implementation.
3. Universal Data Generator
2. State of the Art 3.1. Description of the Generator
Simulation tools are very useful for telecommunication The UDG is developed as a simulation module for OM-
systems design and optimization. Also, they can be NeT++. The UDG was designed as a standard TCP or
used to diagnose and simulate network problems. The UDP OMNeT/Inet application such as TCPAppBase,
accuracy of the simulation depends on a number of UDPAppBase, etc. What makes the UDG interesting
factors [9]. One of the most important tasks is to find is the capability of conditional event simulation that al-
and use the most accurate model that matches the real lows us to program the specific behavior of a particular
situation. protocol or application. When defining a communica-
For whole telecommunication network simulation(all tion profile, it is possible to make the process of sending
ISO/OSI levels), discrete simulation tools are now used the specific message to be dependent on the reception
exclusively. In this kind of simulation tools, the simu- of the previous message. This conditional message in-
lation status changes only after receiving the message jection into a network is not limited to use with a single
from the last performed step. This is a fundamental profile but can be extended to use across different pro-
difference compared to classical waveform simulators files. This conditional network message injection gives
(such as Matlab or Octave) that try to approximate the us considerable freedom to define different test scenar-
simulated problem with mathematical formulas. This ios, especially for application layer testing, where we
method of discretization allows implementing the real can simulate the application’s communication response
behavior of communication technologies at the level of to received messages from various sources.
hardware, as well as software equipment and commu-
nication protocols (such as TCP/IP, Ethernet).
3.2. Profile Files
There are currently many discrete simulation tools.
One of the most famous commercial tools is Opnet. In The individual communication profiles can be com-
the open source community, there are two very pop- bined into one complex XML file. The short example
ular tools: NS-3 and OMNeT++. In all mentioned of profile definition is shown in the List. 1.
tools, you can find an implementation of all different
A profile definition starts with the profile ID speci-
kinds of technologies such as Ethernet, TCP/IP, Wi-
fication, then defines the basic parameters for the con-
Fi, WiMAX, Bluetooth and more. In addition to these
nection as the protocol family ("type"), source/des-
technologies, some services are also implemented.
tination addresses ("src_ip", "dst_ip") and ports
Simulation tools can be classified by a range of cri- ("src_port", "dst_port"). The source and target IP
teria starting from a number of available models to the addresses can be replaced with the unique "nodes"
simulation speed. The great challenge for all the sim- names within the OMNeT++ environment (This is
ulation tools is the complexity of the models and the very useful when autoconfiguration of IP address is
time required for simulation. The more complex mod- used). The definition of the profile then continues with
els are, and the depth of simulation is, the higher the precise definitions of a size of the data messages, their
possibility to obtain more accurate result is. However, sending times and their dependency. A timing of mes-
c 2017 ADVANCES IN ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING 640
INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES AND SERVICES VOLUME: 15 | NUMBER: 4 | 2017 | SPECIAL ISSUE
Upstream
ception of another message. In the case of a dependent
message, a "time" parameter is treated as a processing 200
Downstream
contains information about its direction: "sd" states
from source do destination direction and "ds" states 20
from destination to source direction. The parameter
"prev" control the message dependency on reception 40
of the previous message and the "pprev" parameter 0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800
control the potential dependency on a message from Time [s]
a different profile. Also, a payload can be specified by Fig. 1: IEC 60870-5-104 timeline diagram.
parameter "type". The "rnd" value means that ran-
dom data are used as a payload. That allows creating
very complex communication profiles.
c 2017 ADVANCES IN ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING 641
INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES AND SERVICES VOLUME: 15 | NUMBER: 4 | 2017 | SPECIAL ISSUE
tocol which is commonly used in SCADA (Super- The profile itself is suitable for simulation of the ap-
visory Control And Data Acquisition) systems. plication network load where the sending of the new
request must precede the receipt of a response to the
• Benchmarking profiles - General test profiles to previous request (TCP flow).
verify the TCP/IP deployment parameters.
100
Upstream
A more detailed description of each profile is given
in the following chapters. 50
Downstream
5. UDG Simulation Profiles 50
5.2. Benchmarking Profiles The second profile is called "ZigZag". This type of
profile, as well as the previous "Dual", contains a de-
pendency between the packets, but unlike the previ-
1) Dual
ous one, this dependency has only a limited number
of consequent messages. Also, the profile contains pre-
The first profile called "Dual" produces flow in
cisely defined points when these consequent message
both communication directions (upstream and down-
sequences start. When the network does not manage
stream). The amount of concurrent communication
to handle sending or receiving messages, the number
is limited by the amount and character of the given
of packets in the network increases (counting all the
profile. The profile specifies that at every single mo-
packets that are stored in different buffers) and hence
ment there is maximum of one packet (in any direction)
heavy network congestion arises.
which is transmitted.
This profile is more resistant (then "Dual") to
Due to the strict dependency between packets within
a packet loss. Because when a packet is lost, a shorter
a communication profile, this type of profile is not suit-
message sequence is interrupted, therefore it is also
able for UDP-based simulations. In the case of a single
suitable for use with UDP protocol.
packet loss, the entire profile will fail. The profile pre-
view is again shown in the form of the timeline and the The described profile is shown at the Fig. 5 and
time sequence of the graph in Fig. 3 and Fig. 4. Fig. 6.
c 2017 ADVANCES IN ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING 642
INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES AND SERVICES VOLUME: 15 | NUMBER: 4 | 2017 | SPECIAL ISSUE
Upstream
50 • JFI (Jain’s Fairness Index) [13] and,
Pkt size [B]
Downstream
mission Error Rate) [14].
50
To demonstrate the benefits of using UDG and de- The verification of generated UDG data profiles was
signed profiles for simulation, testing, and analysis of performed within the OMNeT++ simulation environ-
narrowband networks, a statistical analysis of a signif- ment. We used narrowband communication proto-
icant number of the simulation results was performed. col, which was implemented using the CSMA (Car-
These narrowband protocol simulations were aimed at rier Sense Multiple Access) method and the TDMA
analyzing the success of the TCP connections and at (Time Division Multiple Access) method with full
optimizing the fair allocation of resources among the TCP/IP transparent transmission support. Two dif-
individual data streams. The simulations show how ferent medium access methods were chosen to observe
the selected profile affects the success of the data de- differences between random access method (CSMA)
livery, and also how the profile selection can influence and deterministic access method (TDMA). Within the
the fairness of the resource allocation. CSMA approach, our analysis mostly tests congestion
c 2017 ADVANCES IN ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING 643
INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES AND SERVICES VOLUME: 15 | NUMBER: 4 | 2017 | SPECIAL ISSUE
0.7
• Topology: star with retranslation - setup was
based on real network topology with correspond- 0.6
ing TX power setup and path attenuation model
Base se_256
Base_256_1T0
Base_256_2T0
Base_256_3T0
Base_256_4T0
Base_256_5T0
Base_256_6T0
Base_256_7T0
Ba56_8T0
Base se_536
Base_536_1T0
Base_536_2T0
Base_536_3T0
Base_536_4T0
Base_536_5T0
Base_536_6T0
Base_536_7T0
Poll__28T0
Poll_556
36
(see Fig. 7).
_536
Ba
_2
• Number of end elements: 16 (One TCP session
per element).
System configuration [-]
• Net capacity: 100 kb·s−1 . Fig. 8: JFI - Dual profile, 300 s interval.
_2
0.60
Jain's fairness index [-]
_2
c 2017 ADVANCES IN ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING 644
INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES AND SERVICES VOLUME: 15 | NUMBER: 4 | 2017 | SPECIAL ISSUE
0.600
0.595
In the case of stress testing and benchmarking of the
0.590
simulated data network, we need to saturate the net-
0.585 work with specific network traffic. It is interesting to
0.580 compare the results in situations where "Dual" profiles
0.575 were used as the source of the load with the results of
0.570 the simulations that used the data profiles "ZigZag" as
the traffic source. The Fig. 8 and Fig. 9 show a sig-
Base se_256
Base_256_1T0
Base_256_2T0
Base_256_3T0
Base_256_4T0
Base_256_5T0
Base_256_6T0
Base_256_7T0
Ba5se6_8T0
Base _536
Base_536_1T0
Base_536_2T0
Base_536_3T0
Base_536_4T0
Base_536_5T0
Base_536_6T0
Base_536_7T0
Poll__28T0
Poll_556
36
nificant impact on the fair distribution of resources
_536
Ba
_2
c 2017 ADVANCES IN ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING 645
INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES AND SERVICES VOLUME: 15 | NUMBER: 4 | 2017 | SPECIAL ISSUE
in IoT and industry, three TCP/IP data profiles were [2] TORAL-CRUZ, H., F. HIDOUSSI, D. E.
introduced. The first one was based on the IEC 60870- BOUBICHE and K. L. LKAHTARIA. A Survey
5-104 flow pattern. The other two were pure synthetic on Wireless Sensor Networks. In: Handbook of Re-
profile patterns ("Dual" and "ZigZag"). These profiles search on Next Generation Wireless Network Se-
were applied to the narrowband radio network model curity and Privacy. Hershey: IGI Global, 2015,
and were evaluated with JFI and CER/TER metrics. pp. 171– 210. ISBN 978-1466686878.
The result of the comparison showed that the trans- [3] GILCHRIST, A. Industry 4.0: The Industrial
mission of TCP/IP data by the narrowband communi- Internet of Things. Berkeley: Apress, 2016.
cation system is very prone to the nature of the trans- ISBN 978-1484220467.
mitted data and their interconnection. Simulations
showed that a poorly chosen structure of transmitted [4] TORAL-CRUZ, H., A. D. MIHOVSKA, M. VOZ-
data could significantly affect the fairness of individ- NAK, K. I. LAKHTARIA and R. BESTAK.
ual data streams (according to the JFI), but also the Research Trends and Challenges for Network-
connection stability(according to CER/TER). We also Based ICT Systems. Wireless Personal Commu-
demonstrated that the JFI needs to be well set to ob- nications. 2015, vol. 85, no. 1, pp. 1–7. ISSN 1572-
tain relevant results. 834X. DOI: 10.1007/s11277-015-2724-4.
In the future research, we would like to enhance our [5] VONDROUS, O., P. MACEJKO, T. HEGR and
FlowPing tool [15] to take advantage of UDG XML pro- Z. KOCUR. Testing methodology for performance
file description. This new functionality will enable us evaluation of communication systems for Smart
to use the UDG in real-world and directly compare the Grid. In: 2nd International Conference on Intel-
results with simulations. Then we will refine not only ligent Green Building and Smart Grid. Prague:
the network models we created, but we will improve IEEE, 2016, pp. 12–17. ISBN 978-1-4673-8473-5.
and streamline the actual testing in real production DOI: 10.1109/IGBSG.2016.7539412.
environment.
[6] CEPA, L., Z. KOCUR and Z. MULLER. Mi-
gration of the IT Technologies to the Smart
Grids. Elektronika ir Elektrotechnika. 2012,
Acknowledgment vol. 123, no. 7, pp. 123–128. ISSN 2029-5731.
DOI: 10.5755/j01.eee.123.7.2390.
This work was supported by the Grant of the Technol-
ogy Agency of the Czech Republic, No. TA04011571, [7] VOZNAK, M. and J. ROZHON. SIP End to
Radio for Smart Transmission Networks, and was re- End Performance Metrics. International Journal
searched in cooperation with RACOM and Brno Uni- of Mathematics and Computers in Simulation.
versity of Technology. 2012, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 315–323. ISSN 1998-0159.
Also this work was supported by Student [8] ISOBE, T., N. TANIDA, Y. OISHI and
grant at Czech Technical University in Prague K. YOSHIDA. TCP acceleration technology for
SGS16/158/OHK3/2T/13. cloud computing: Algorithm, performance evalu-
ation in real network. In: International Confer-
Access to computing and storage facilities owned
ence on Advanced Technologies for Communica-
by parties and projects contributing to the National
tions. Hanoi: IEEE, 2014, pp. 714–719. ISBN 978-
Grid Infrastructure MetaCentrum provided under the
1-4799-6956-2. DOI: 10.1109/ATC.2014.7043480.
programme "Projects of Large Research, Develop-
ment, and Innovations Infrastructures" (CESNET [9] VARGA, A. and R. HORNIG. An overview of the
LM2015042), is greatly appreciated. OMNeT++ simulation environment. In: Proceed-
ings of the 1st International Conference on Simu-
lation Tools and Techniques for Communications,
References Networks and Systems & Workshops. Marseille:
SimuTools, 2008, pp. 60:1–10. ISBN 978-963-9799-
20-2.
[1] HIDOUSSI, F., H. TORAL-CRUZ,
D. E. BOUBICHE, K. I. LAKHTARIA, A. MI- [10] GEYER, F., S. SCHNEELE and G. CARLE.
HOVSKA and M. VOZNAK. Centralized IDS RENETO, a realistic network traffic generator for
Based on Misuse Detection for Cluster-Based OMNeT++/INET. In: Proceedings of the 6th In-
Wireless Sensors Networks. Wireless Personal ternational ICST Conference on Simulation Tools
Communications. 2015, vol. 85, no. 1, pp. 207–224. and Techniques. Cannes: SimuTools, 2013, pp. 73–
ISSN 1572-834X. DOI: 10.1007/s11277-015-2734- 81. ISBN 978-1-4503-2464-9. DOI: 10.4108/simu-
2. tools.2013.251697.
c 2017 ADVANCES IN ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING 646
INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES AND SERVICES VOLUME: 15 | NUMBER: 4 | 2017 | SPECIAL ISSUE
[11] CHENG, Y., E. K. CETINKAYA and 2015, vol. 13, no. 5, pp. 516–521. ISSN 1804-3119.
J. P. G. STERBENZ. Transactional Traffic DOI: 10.15598/aeee.v13i5.1497.
Generator Implementation in ns-3. In: Proceed-
ings of the 6th International ICST Conference
on Simulation Tools and Techniques. Cannes: About Authors
SimuTools, 2013, pp. 182–189. ISBN 978-1-4503-
2464-9. DOI: 10.4108/simutools.2013.251742.
Ondrej VONDROUS was born in Czech Republic
[12] HAJEK, J., J. HRAD and J. VODRAZKA. in 1981. He received his M.Sc. degree in electrical
Simplified model for performance estimation of engineering from the Czech Technical University in
narrowband data transmission over low-voltage Prague in 2011. Since 2011 he has been studying Ph.D.
power lines. In: 17th International Conference degree in telecommunication engineering. His research
on Mechatronics - Mechatronika. Prague: IEEE, interests include network transmission control, data
2016, pp. 537–540. ISBN 978-8-0010-5883-1. flow analysis and data flow optimization.
[13] BENNETT, J. C. R. and H. ZHANG. WF/- Peter MACEJKO was born in Czech Republic
sup 2/Q: worst-case fair weighted fair queueing. in 1980. He received his M.Sc. degree in electrical
In: INFOCOM ’96. Fifteenth Annual Joint Con- engineering from the Czech Technical University in
ference of the IEEE Computer Societies. Net- Prague in 2006. He is teaching networking technologies
working the Next Generation. San Francisco: and distributed systems. His research is focused on
IEEE, 1996, pp. 120–128. ISBN 0-8186-7293-5. scheduling in distributed systems and data flow and
DOI: 10.1109/INFCOM.1996.497885. protocol analysis. He is currently actively involved in
projects focused on high speed data transmission from
[14] VONDROUS, O., P. MACEJKO and Z. KOCUR.
fast moving objects.
CER/TER - The New Metric for TCP Connec-
tion Robustness Evaluation and Comparison. Ad-
vances in Electrical and Electronic Engineering. Zbynek KOCUR was born in 1982. He re-
2015, vol. 13, no. 5, pp. 529–535. ISSN 1804-3119. ceived his M.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from
DOI: 10.15598/aeee.v13i5.1500. the Czech Technical University in Prague in 2008
and Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering in 2014.
[15] VONDROUS, O., P. MACEJKO and He is teaching communication in data networks and
Z. KOCUR. FlowPing - The New Tool for networking technologies. His research is focused on
Throughput and Stress Testing. Advances wireless transmission and data flow analysis, simula-
in Electrical and Electronic Engineering. tion and optimization.
c 2017 ADVANCES IN ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING 647