Emulation of a wireless communication disruption using Linux Network Emulator

Motivation

The digital revolution is lately being driven by Internet of Things (IoT) devices, especially in areas where real time data analytic is essential. One of the wide spread usage is in the area of industrial automation where modern day industrial equipment have evolved to exploit the advancements in the smart factory context. With its wireless interfaces, the IoT devices can be portable to carry around and also provide simple means of data accessibility.

Although abundant research has been conducted on the wireless communication, it is evident that guaranteeing highly reliable communication over a long period of time could still be challenging. This holds true specifically in industries where multiple communication technologies interfere with one another. The primary reason behind such a behavior is the sharing of the unlicensed band of frequency spectrum. The implications of an unreliable communication could be catastrophic with heavy machinery and human beings working in close quarters.

Topic

In order to improve reliability in communication, it is essential to design a network which is resilient to communication failures. Since experiencing interference in lab environment is often challenging, there is a necessity to emulate the behavior. In doing so, communication disruptions just like in an actual factory can be reproduced in lab environment for WiFi and Ethernet networks.

The Linux kernel offers a Network Emulator, tc-netem(8) which assists in manipulating the traffic flow of network interfaces. This could be configured to emulate the network performance of any desired characteristics. The following activities are necessary:

• Creating a simple network using Raspberry Pi and generating background traffic using IEEE 802.15.4 to induce disruption
• Developing test application to measure and gather network characteristics such as latency, throughput for multiple scenarios
• Emulating the same network characteristics using Network Emulator and investigating its configurable properties
• Creating a playbook for defining different disruptions over time

In case you are interested in this topics, feel free to contact me.

Skills required

• C programming or Python and Git
• Linux experience

What you will learn

• Networking in Linux

References