RapidMesh: declarative toolkit for rapid experimentation of wireless mesh networks

We present the RapidMesh toolkit for rapid protocol simulation, implementation and experimentation of wireless mesh networks. RapidMesh utilizes declarative networking, a declarative, database-inspired extensible infrastructure that uses query languages to specify behavior. RapidMesh integrates a declarative networking engine with the emerging ns-3 network simulator. The same declarative specifications can also be used as actual implementations using the ns-3 network emulator, hence providing a bridge between simulation and testbed-based experimentation. We demonstrate that RapidMesh enables a variety of wireless routing protocols and neighbor discovery protocols can be synthesized via compact declarative specifications. We experimentally validate declarative MANET routing protocols in dynamic settings within RapidMesh operating in ns-3 simulation environment and on the ORBIT wireless testbed.