Simulation of Distributed Systems in Constrained Environments Using ESDS: the Arctic Tundra Case

Studying Distributed Systems (DS) is important. They are used in many computer systems such as Internet of Things (IoT), Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN), Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS). Conducting research studies on DS is possible with simulation. However, depending on the research context, having access to the proper simulator is challenging. Existing simulation frameworks can be complex and not suitable to study DS outside of commonly seen contexts, such as systems deployed in constrained environments. Often, authors from state of the art rely on building their own simulator. This is a time consuming, delicate and dangerous approach, especially when such simulators are not validated.This paper presents the Extensible Simulator for Distributed Systems (ESDS) in the context of systems deployed in constrained environments. In our case, the Arctic Tundra. This simulation framework is simple to use and suitable for the study of DS. The architecture of the simulation framework is detailed at a fine grain level. Results show that, ESDS can be used to conduct energy consumption and network performance studies of distributed systems such as CPS.