DiNS: Nature Disaster in Network Simulations

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) is a promising solution for disaster management because of its scalability and low cost operations. However, testing the effectiveness of WSNs in real-world disasters is time consuming, costly and in some cases even infeasible. In this paper, we propose a Disaster in Network Simulations (DiNS) framework based on OMNeT ++ to replicate a WSN deployed in a disaster in a simulated environment. DiNS allows researchers to observe how the disaster influences the sensor network and how the network can respond in return. A generic coupling interface is developed to support different disaster types. Moreover, we develop a verification tool for functional debugging and verification during new functions de-veloping of sensor nodes, and an optimization tool to support the mathematical optimization of the network operations in response to the disaster. The functionality of DiNS is demonstrated with a case study using wildfire disaster. It provides an easy way for validating and optimizing the disaster management with WSNs.