Mobile Ad-hoc Network Emulator (MANE)

MANE is a mobile ad hoc network emulator that provides the ability to emulate dynamic link connectivity between emulated mobile nodes in a laboratory testbed.

MANE runs on a network of servers, each of which hosts a number of client test nodes (TNs). The servers LAN approach support emulation scalability (see Figure below).

Although MANE runs on a Linux operating system, the overall design accommodates heterogeneous operating systems among the TNs. Furthermore, MANE is protocol independent, and can support multiple protocols (e.g., IPv4, IPv6, ARP, etc.)

The MANE connectivity model provides packet dropping based on the range between individual nodes, the transmission power, and packet size.

MANE Components

MANE consists of the following components:

1. Forwarding Engine: This component runs on the MANE servers. It sniffs packets on the servers interfaces, and forwards them to the all other servers interfaces. The forwarding engine interconnects all the emulated mobile nodes (TNs).
2. Range Model: This component runs on the MANE servers. It generates the connectivity matrix that determines which packets get dropped. The range model works in conjunction with the forwarding engine and creates a dynamic connectivity model on the servers.
3. GPS Emulator: This component reads position information from scripts for each emulated mobile node and multicasts the positions out to the MANE forwarding engine/range model and to the individual emulated nodes. There is one GPS emulator in MANE, and it resides either on the testbed control node, or on one of the MANE servers.
4. GPS Daemon: This component resides on each of the emulated mobile nodes. It listens to the GPS emulator multicasts and keeps track of the node position. It can supply GPS position information to applications that require it.
5. TN Packet Treatment: This component resides on each of the emulated mobile nodes. It emulates the effects of a simple Media Access Control (MAC) scheme by limiting the total amount of inbound and outbound traffic at a test node. This module creates a virtual interface over which all MANET communications must take place.

Each of the components obtain testbed configuration information from a common configuration file, which by default is located in /etc/mane.config.

MANE Downloads

MANE source files are available for download at http://downloads.pf.itd.nrl.navy.mil/mane/

MANE Documentation

Documentation for MANE is available in the form of README files at in the downloaded distribution, within the docs/ directory

Comments and Questions

Direct questions and comments to the Mane Users Mailing List. This mailing list is monitored by the MANE developer(s).

If you are interested in more information about MANE, please contact mane@pf.itd.nrl.navy.mil