Long Term Evolution (LTE) is a strong candidate for the next generation of Mission-Critical Networks (MCNs) for public safety and military use. However, extensive investigation on different operating scenarios has to be done before adopting LTE. Emulating LTE networks is the best solution to provide the needed insights to the regulators so that they can make informed decisions. In this paper, we integrate LTE-EPC Network simulator (LENA) module with the Common Open Research Emulator (CORE) in order to enable the emulation of large-scale LTE networks. The developed tool bridges the real and the simulated worlds by allowing us to connect real devices to simulated devices and passing traffic to the simulated world from the real world and vice versa. Using this tool, mission-critical scenarios could be investigated in a cost effective way.

A. Sabbah, A. Jarwan, O. Issa, and M. Ibnkahla, “Enabling LTE emulation by integrating CORE emulator and LTE-EPC network (LENA) simulator,” in 2017 IEEE 28th Annual International Symposium on Personal, Indoor, and Mobile Radio Communications (PIMRC), Oct. 2017, pp. 1–6. doi: 10.1109/PIMRC.2017.8292642.

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Due to the critical importance of Public Safety Networks (PSNs), they must have regular on-site performance evaluation. Conducting tests on real systems are expensive in terms of money, efforts, resources, and time. On the other hand, simulation and emulation tools are very important in the design and modeling of engineering systems. They can play a significant role in reducing the high expenses of such periodic tests. NS-3 is a widely used network simulator with a lot of capabilities. However, simulating realistic and large-scale PSNs reveals many limitations in the performance of simulation and urges for methods to speedup the simulations. Despite the exerted efforts in creating distributed simulators, less work that targets wireless networks is done. In this paper, we survey the different methods to enhance the simulation performance including parallel and distributed solutions in the PSN context. We also propose a framework to evaluate and test PSNs in real-time manner. This paper opens the door for future work in achieving better simulations, in terms of reliability and consumed time, for PSNs’ large-scale networks.

I. Al-Shiab, A. Sabbah, A. Jarwan, O. Issa, and M. Ibnkahla, “Simulating large-scale networks for public safety: Parallel and distributed solutions in NS-3,” in 2017 IEEE 28th Annual International Symposium on Personal, Indoor, and Mobile Radio Communications (PIMRC), Oct. 2017, pp. 1–7. doi: 10.1109/PIMRC.2017.8292761.

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