ABSTRACT
OPNET supports a wide range of data link layer protocols and technologies including Ethernet, Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI), Frame Relay (FR), Token Ring (TR), X.25, and so on. In addition, OPNET software also contains various models for simulating wireless communication, such as Wireless LAN (WLAN), WiMAX (802.16e), Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANET), Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), and others. Each of these protocols and technologies typically has a set of simulation attributes for specifying a desired conguration. However, a complete description of all related parameters and conguration settings is beyond the scope of this book. Furthermore, the principles and patterns for conguring these technologies are often very similar. A reader with a working knowledge of any of the above protocols and with an understanding of OPNET basics can easily determine the meaning of the conguration attributes as well as design and congure a simulation model of a network that employs the corresponding data link layer or wireless communication technology. For this reason, instead of describing all available models and their attributes in detail, we only introduce the main principles behind deploying data link layer and wireless communication technologies in OPNET and provide an overview of a few most popular protocols and technologies. It is important to note that certain wireless protocol suites, such as WLAN, WiMAX, and UMTS, require separate module licenses. Thus, none of the features described in Sections 12.6 and 12.7 will be available unless the wireless module license is present. For a complete description of all supported data link layer and wireless communication protocols and technologies, refer to OPNET’s product documentation.
