VisualSense: Visual Modeling for Wireless and Sensor Network Systems

Authors: Philip Baldwin, Sanjeev Kohli, Edward A. Lee, Xiaojun Liu, and Yang Zhao
Contributors: C.T. Ee, Christopher Brooks, N.V. Krishnan, Stephen Neuendorffer, Charlie Zhong, Rachel Zhou

Technical Memorandum UCB/ERL M05/25, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, July 15, 2005.

ABSTRACT

VisualSense is a modeling and simulation framework for wireless and sensor networks that builds on and leverages Ptolemy II. Modeling of wireless networks requires sophisticated representation and analysis of communication channels, sensors, ad-hoc networking protocols, localization strategies, media access control protocols, energy consumption in sensor nodes, etc. This modeling framework is designed to support a component-based construction of such models. It supports actor-oriented definition of network nodes, wireless communication channels, physical media such as acoustic channels, and wired subsystems. The software architecture consists of a set of base classes for defining channels and sensor nodes, a library of subclasses that provide certain specific channel models and node models, and an extensible visualization framework. Custom nodes can be defined by subclassing the base classes and defining the behavior in Java or by creating composite models using any of several Ptolemy II modeling environments. Custom channels can be defined by subclassing the WirelessChannel base class and by attaching functionality defined in Ptolemy II models. It is intended to enable the research community to share models of disjoint aspects of the sensor nets problem and to build models that include sophisticated elements from several aspects.