Crowdsensing Simulation Using ns-3

A crowdsensing network is a sensor network in which sensors are users that sense the environment and send the obtained data using, for instance, their smartphones. The performance of such sensor networks depends heavily on the mobility of the users and their willingness to collaborate. It is hard to obtain a stable set of users to evaluate such kinds of sensor networks and, for that reason, studies of crowdsensing networks are scarce. In this paper, we describe how the ns-3 network simulator can be used to simulate some crowdsensing networks with specific characteristics by using the mobility properties of network nodes together with the wireless interface in ad hoc network mode. We model the identification of network nodes with users of the crowdsensing network and we define how to simulate user sensing capabilities. Finally, we present a simulation example for a specific crowdsensing network where users report incidents in the public rail transport.