The 6th International Workshop on OMNeT++

Research Article

The CNI Open Source Satellite Simulator based on OMNeT++

  • @INPROCEEDINGS{10.4108/icst.simutools.2013.251580,
        author={Brian Niehoefer and Sebastian Subik and Christian Wietfeld},
        title={The CNI Open Source Satellite Simulator based on OMNeT++},
        proceedings={The 6th International Workshop on OMNeT++},
        publisher={ACM},
        proceedings_a={OMNET WORKSHOP},
        year={2013},
        month={7},
        keywords={satellite simulation satellite communication omnet++ open source voice over ip simulation framework},
        doi={10.4108/icst.simutools.2013.251580}
    }
    
  • Brian Niehoefer
    Sebastian Subik
    Christian Wietfeld
    Year: 2013
    The CNI Open Source Satellite Simulator based on OMNeT++
    OMNET WORKSHOP
    ICST
    DOI: 10.4108/icst.simutools.2013.251580
Brian Niehoefer1,*, Sebastian Subik1, Christian Wietfeld1
  • 1: TU Dortmund University
*Contact email: brian.niehoefer@tu-dortmund.de

Abstract

Satellite services (e.g. Internet-over-Satellite or GPS) are getting more and more important in our lives, whereby the operational area is still growing. To guarantee those services, reliable simulation tools are necessary to scale and validate actual and future satellite systems. Therefore, this paper gives an overview about development, functionalities and benefit of a satellite simulation framework which is already available for download, called the Open Source Satellite Simulator (OS3). The use of OMNeT++ in combination with the INET framework allows the release under public license as well as a platform independent implementation. To provide an accurate and comfortable tool, OS\textsuperscript{3} features a Graphical User Interface, live weather data integration, high resolution altitude data, accurate satellite movements, different visualization options, channel modeling and much more. In order to ensure the correctness of simulation results, numerous experimental and simulation tests were conducted.

A comparison between satellite position and movement predictions from OS3 and the corresponding values provided by the DLR (German Aerospace Center) proves the accuracy of the satellite movement simulation. The experimental validation was done by comparing simulated channel characteristics with actual measurements. Additionally, a simulation for VoIP transmission over a satellite link was implemented to show how OS3 can be applied to specific use cases.