Obtaining Models for Realistic Mobile Network Simulations using Real Traces

Field tests are vital for characterizing mobile networks and applications under real conditions, but may be too costly. Simulations are an alternative for performing this kind of analysis, but may yield results that are too synthetic. In this paper we present a methodology for obtaining more sophisticated and realistic simulations, based on the use of traffic traces from field tests on live networks and an objective-driven simulation approach for parameter tuning. We use this approach to automatically refine parameterized mathematical jitter models, which can be used in network simulations to replicate communication issues presented in wireless networks.