Sean Bromage: SCORPION: A heterogeneous wireless networking testbed

During the last decade, the success and popularity of wireless standards such as IEEE 802.11 have drawn the attention of the research community to wireless networks. A great amount of effort has been invested into research in this area, using all kinds of simulation and analysis. However, simulations do not precisely control hardware interrupts, packet timing and real physical and MAC layer behaviors. As a result, simulation results need to be validated by real implementations.

SCORPION (Santa Cruz mObile Radio Platform for Indoor and Outdoor Networks) is a heterogeneous wireless networking testbed that includes a variety of nodes ranging from ground vehicles to autonomous aerial vehicles. Node diversity in terms of mobility and capabilities (e.g., processing, storage, and communication) makes the SCORPION testbed well-suited for testing and evaluating a variety of wireless network protocols, including multi-radio, multi-channel medium access control, multi-hop wireless ad-hoc routing, as well as disruption-tolerant routing and message delivery protocols for networks with varying connectivity. The varied mobility patterns exhibited by these nodes allow for unique and innovative ways to test network protocols for current as well as next-generation network applications.