School of Engineering

Wireless Communication

Lab 1: Wireless LAN (WLAN)

Aim: The aim of this lab is to implement a WLAN using a simulation tool (Riverbed/Opnet) and
investigate its behavior.

Equipment required:

1. Desktop Computer.
2. Riverbed/Opnet wireless network simulator.

Instructions:

1. Open the Riverbed Modeler simulator and start a new project.

2. Give it a project name (e.g., WLAN) and a scenario name (e.g., Low_load).
3. Select Create Empty Scenario -> Office -> X:100, Y:100 -> Wireless_lan_adv->Finish.

4. From the Object Palette, select the following modules and drag them in the workspace:
a. wlan_server_adv(fix) x1.
b. wlan_wkstn_adv(fix) x 3.
c. Application config x1.
d. Profile config x1.
5. Rename the server to WLAN_Server and workstations to WLAN_Workstation1,
WLAN_Workstation2 and WLAN_Workstation3.

6. Click on the Application definition and define 3 applications:

a. Video: low resolution video

b. Voice: IP Telephony
c. Internet: Http-> Heavy browsing.

7. When 3 applications are defined, it should look like this:

8. Now define a profile for each of the applications (e.g., voice_profile, video_profile, and
internet_profile) using the Profile Definition module:
 9. Select all the wireless nodes (server and wkstns) and configure the supported profiles, and
supported services as follows:

If you want to use the same supported profiles and services for all nodes, please make sure that the
Apply to selected objects box is ticked.

10. Now click on the DES menu and select Choose Individual Statistics-> Global Statistics ->
Wireless LAN -> Delay, Retransmission attempts, Throughputs. These are the
parameters we want to investigate in the simulation.
11. Press the DES-> Configure/Run Discrete Event Simulator and select a suitable time
period (e.g., 20 mins) you want the network to run for. Press Apply and Run. If the
simulation finishes immediately, there is something wrong with your configuration; please
go back and debug.

12. Once the simulation is finished, go back to the DES menu and select Results->View
Results.
13. Have a look into the results.

14. We will now create another scenario with more nodes (hence more load) and then compare
the two scenarios (low vs high load WLAN).
15. Go to the Scenario menu and select Duplicate Scenario. Give it a name (e.g., High Load
WLAN).
16. Select and drag 6 more wlan_wkstn_adv(fix) nodes from the palette and use them in the
workspace.
 17. Configure the new nodes (note- follow the step 9).
18. Run the new scenario.
19. Go to DES->Results->Compare Results.
20. Select the low load and high load scenarios and observe the results.

Report:

1. What happens to the WLAN delay, retransmission atempt and throughput when you
increase the number of nodes? Discuss your observation.
2. How do you think the performance could have been improved?
3. Submit a report (soft and hardcopy) within 2 weeks following the completion of this
lab.

Thank You.