Java Extensions for OMNeT++

TL;DR

This paper introduces Java extensions for OMNeT++ 5.0, enabling Java simulation models to be executed and integrated with C++ models, thus enhancing flexibility for network simulation and prototyping.

Contribution

The paper presents new Java extensions for OMNeT++ 5.0, allowing Java models to run within the simulation environment and interact with existing C++ models.

Findings

Java extensions enable execution of Java models in OMNeT++

Java and C++ models can be combined in simulations

Extensions are based on Java Native Interface (JNI)

Abstract

On the one side, network simulation frameworks are important tools for research and development activities to evaluate novel approaches in a time- and cost-efficient way. On the other side, Java as a highly platform-independent programming language is ideally suited for rapid prototyping in heterogeneous scenarios. Consequently, Java simulation frameworks could be used to firstly perform functional verification of new approaches (and protocols) in a simulation environment and afterwards, to evaluate these approaches in real testbeds using prototype Java implementations. Finally, the simulation models can be refined using real world measurement data. Unfortunately, there is to the best of our knowledge no satisfying Java framework for network simulation, as the OMNeT++ Java support ended with OMNeT++ version 4.6. Hence, our contributions are as follows: we present Java extensions for OMNeT++ 5.0 that enable the execution of Java simulation models and give a detailed explanation of the working principles of the OMNeT++ Java extensions that are based on Java Native Interface. We conduct several case studies to evaluate the concept of Java extensions for OMNeT++. Most importantly, we show that the combined use of Java simulation models and C++ models (e.g., from the INET framework) is possible.