Sebastian E Jubin, Sowieja Fabian, Sikora Axel
Institute of Reliable Embedded Systems and Communication Electronics (ivESK), Offenburg University of Applied Sciences, 77652 Offenburg, Germany.
Sensors (Basel). 2024 Nov 27;24(23):7579. doi: 10.3390/s24237579.
Narrow Band-Wireless Wide Area Networking (NB-WWAN) technologies are becoming more popular across a wide range of application domains due to their ability to provide spatially distributed and reliable wireless connectivity in addition to offering low data rates, low bandwidth, long-range, and long battery life. For functional testing and performance assessments, the wide range of wireless technology alternatives within this category poses several difficulties. At the device level, it is necessary to address issues such as resource limitations, complex protocols, interoperability, and reliability, while at the network level, challenges include complex topologies and wireless channel/signal propagation problems. Testing the functionality and measuring the performance of spatially distributed NB-WWAN systems require a systematic approach to overcome these challenges. Furthermore, to provide a seamless test flow, it is also critical to test and compare the performance of wireless systems systematically and consistently across the different system development phases. To evaluate NB-WWAN technologies comprehensively across multiple abstraction levels-network simulators, emulated lab testbeds, and field test environments-we propose a unified multi-abstraction-level testing methodology. A detailed technical description of the prototype implementation and its evaluation is presented in this paper.
窄带无线广域网（NB-WWAN）技术因其能够提供空间分布式且可靠的无线连接，同时具备低数据速率、低带宽、远距离和长电池续航能力，在广泛的应用领域中越来越受欢迎。对于功能测试和性能评估而言，该类别内众多的无线技术选择带来了诸多困难。在设备层面，有必要解决诸如资源限制、复杂协议、互操作性和可靠性等问题，而在网络层面，挑战包括复杂的拓扑结构以及无线信道/信号传播问题。测试空间分布式NB-WWAN系统的功能并衡量其性能需要一种系统的方法来克服这些挑战。此外，为了提供无缝的测试流程，在不同的系统开发阶段系统且一致地测试和比较无线系统的性能也至关重要。为了在多个抽象级别——网络模拟器、仿真实验室测试平台和现场测试环境——全面评估NB-WWAN技术，我们提出了一种统一的多抽象级别测试方法。本文给出了原型实现及其评估的详细技术描述。
