From Simulators to Digital Twins for Enabling Emerging Cellular Networks: A Tutorial and Survey

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Manalastas, Marvin, Farooq, Muhammad Umar Bin, Zaidi, Syed Muhammad Asad, Qureshi, Haneya Naeem, Sambo, Yusuf, Imran, Ali
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Manalastas, Marvin
Farooq, Muhammad Umar Bin
Zaidi, Syed Muhammad Asad
Qureshi, Haneya Naeem
Sambo, Yusuf
Imran, Ali
author_facet Manalastas, Marvin
Farooq, Muhammad Umar Bin
Zaidi, Syed Muhammad Asad
Qureshi, Haneya Naeem
Sambo, Yusuf
Imran, Ali
contents Simulators are indispensable parts of the research and development necessary to advance countless industries, including cellular networks. With simulators, the evaluation, analysis, testing, and experimentation of novel designs and algorithms can be executed in a more cost-effective and convenient manner without the risk of real network service disruption. Additionally, recent trends indicate that the advancement of these Digital System Models (DSM), such as system-level simulators, will hold a pivotal role in advancing cellular networks by facilitating the development of digital twins. Given this growing significance, in this survey and tutorial paper, we present an extensive review of the currently available DSMs for 5G and beyond (5G&B) networks. Specifically, we begin with a tutorial on the fundamental concepts of 5G&B network simulations, followed by an identification of the essential design requirements needed to model the key features of these networks. We also devised a taxonomy of different types of 5G&B network simulators. In contrast to existing simulator surveys, which mostly leverage traditional metrics applicable to legacy networks, we devise and use 5G-specific evaluation metrics that capture three key facets of a network simulator, namely realism, completeness, and computational efficiency. We evaluate each simulator according to the devised metrics to generate an applicability matrix that maps different 5G&B simulators vis-a-vis the different research themes they can potentially enable. We also present the current challenges in developing 5G&B simulators while laying out several potential solutions to address the issues. Finally, we discuss the future challenges related to simulator design provisions that will arise with the emergence of 6G networks.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2411_08907
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle From Simulators to Digital Twins for Enabling Emerging Cellular Networks: A Tutorial and Survey
Manalastas, Marvin
Farooq, Muhammad Umar Bin
Zaidi, Syed Muhammad Asad
Qureshi, Haneya Naeem
Sambo, Yusuf
Imran, Ali
Networking and Internet Architecture
Systems and Control
Simulators are indispensable parts of the research and development necessary to advance countless industries, including cellular networks. With simulators, the evaluation, analysis, testing, and experimentation of novel designs and algorithms can be executed in a more cost-effective and convenient manner without the risk of real network service disruption. Additionally, recent trends indicate that the advancement of these Digital System Models (DSM), such as system-level simulators, will hold a pivotal role in advancing cellular networks by facilitating the development of digital twins. Given this growing significance, in this survey and tutorial paper, we present an extensive review of the currently available DSMs for 5G and beyond (5G&B) networks. Specifically, we begin with a tutorial on the fundamental concepts of 5G&B network simulations, followed by an identification of the essential design requirements needed to model the key features of these networks. We also devised a taxonomy of different types of 5G&B network simulators. In contrast to existing simulator surveys, which mostly leverage traditional metrics applicable to legacy networks, we devise and use 5G-specific evaluation metrics that capture three key facets of a network simulator, namely realism, completeness, and computational efficiency. We evaluate each simulator according to the devised metrics to generate an applicability matrix that maps different 5G&B simulators vis-a-vis the different research themes they can potentially enable. We also present the current challenges in developing 5G&B simulators while laying out several potential solutions to address the issues. Finally, we discuss the future challenges related to simulator design provisions that will arise with the emergence of 6G networks.
title From Simulators to Digital Twins for Enabling Emerging Cellular Networks: A Tutorial and Survey
topic Networking and Internet Architecture
Systems and Control
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.08907