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Looking at:

OMNET++: How to obtain wireless signal power?

and

https://github.com/inet-framework/inet/blob/master/examples/wireless/scaling/omnetpp.ini

there seem to be no power consumption related settings to packets that are sent in a UnitDiskRadio.

Is there a way of setting packet power consumption in a unit disk radio medium, or, conversely, communication range in ApskScalarRadioMedium?

Sebi
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1 Answers1

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UnitDiskRadio is a simplified version of a radio, where you are not interested in the transmission, propagation, attenuation etc. details. You just want to have a clear cut transmission distance. Above that, the transmission always fails, below that the transmission always succeed. This is simple, fast and suitable if you want to simulate high level behavior like application level or routing. You really don't care how much your radio draws from a power grid (or battery) in this case.

On the other hand, if you are interested in low level details, the whole radio transmission process should be modeled. In this case, you model the power draw and based on that transmission and there is no clear cut transmission range. Whether a transmission succeeds is a probabilistic outcome depending on power, antenna configuration, encoding, modulation, noise and a lot of other stuff, so you cannot set it as a simple "range".

TLDR: No, you cannot set both of them on the same radio.

PS: and make sure that you do not mix and match various power parameters. The first question you linked is about getting the power of a received packet (i.e. how strong that signal was when it was received). The second link show how to configure the transmission power (that goes out on the antenna), and in the question you are referring to power consumption which is a third thing, meaning how much you draw from a battery to make the transmission. They are NOT the same thing.

Rudi
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  • Yes, it doesn't make sense that the radio transmission process should be limited to a fixed range. But range should be a probabilistic function of emitter strength, noise, right? I can't seem to find anything related in omnet. In a UnitDiskRadioMedium packets always have 0W power attached to them. I've managed to get power in ApskScalarRadioMedium but I don't know how to set the range. My starting point ... – Sebi Dec 15 '20 at 15:32
  • .. was the wireless tutorial (Step 12 Turning it into a real network). In that config, the range is not removed ... – Sebi Dec 15 '20 at 15:32
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    In the first half of the sentence you say, that it makes no sense to say that a transmission has a "range" (because it's a probabilistic function of distance) and on the last part you ask, how to set that range. You cannot set it, because in a detailed model, you can set only physical parameters. You set the power, and for a given distance packets will fail with a certain probability, but even with extreme distance, packets still have a (very small) chance to get through, so the notion of "transmission range" is meaningless on this level. – Rudi Dec 15 '20 at 16:45
  • What I meant that, intuitively, range should be a function of emitter strength, noise, etc. It's cleared up now. Thanks! – Sebi Dec 15 '20 at 18:15
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    Indeed, it is the function of power and other variables, the problem might be that it's a bit harder to calculate it in the reverse direction, i.e. you have a range requirement like 90% of the packets should succeed under 50 meter, any you have to determine the required power. That's hard. People usually play around by hand picking a few power values and see whether that fit's their purpose. – Rudi Dec 16 '20 at 09:31
  • Thanks again! Do you know of any documentation about how to tweak the parameters more effectively? (in my case it takes a while to run through the simulation). I seem to be getting collisions https://stackoverflow.com/questions/65316283/poor-reception-rates-in-radio-environment But this doesn't happen in a unit disk medium. – Sebi Dec 16 '20 at 15:12