Abstract: In this work we present a new simulation toolkit that we call TRAILS (Toolkit for Realism and Adaptivity In Large-scale Simulations), which extends the \NS simulator by adding several important functionalities and optimizing certain
critical simulator operations. The added features focus on providing the user with the necessary tools to better study wireless networks of high dynamics; in particular, to implement advanced mobility patterns, obstacle presence and disaster scenarios, and failures injection. These scenarios and patterns can dynamically change throughout the execution of the simulation based on network related parameters. Moreover, we define a set of utilities that can facilitate the use of \NS providing advanced statistics and easy-to-use logging mechanisms. This functionality is implemented in a simple and flexible architecture, that follows design patterns, object oriented and generic programming principles, maintaining a proper balance between reusability, extendability and ease of use. We evaluate the performance of TRAILS and show that it offers significant speed-ups (at least 4 times faster) regarding the execution time of \NS in certain important, common wireless settings. Our results also show that this is achieved with minimum overhead in terms of memory usage.
