It is not clear your question. If you want to implement FEC code, matlab.

The simulators use a random generator to mark that the packet has an error, in reality the packet is not corrupted, they only simulated an error with a flag. Recover the error is so simple like set the flag to false.

Thanks for your answer.

My requirement is slightly different. I want to make some modifications to the existing 802.11 protocol. From what I read, 802.11 protocol uses a fixed combination of modulation and coding schemes. For example, BPSK always uses 1/2 FEC, QPSK always uses 3/4 FEC, and so on. I want to know if there is a way to combine multiple FEC schemes with the same modulation scheme. In essence, I want to be able to choose the FEC scheme in real-time, while the modulation technique is pre-determined and fixed.

Does MATLAB provide this flexibility?

Matlab yes, or, if you don't have access to a matlab license, you can use

SimuPy (with numpy, scipy and sympy)

Further, I want to be able to measure instantaneous frame delays and reliability caused by the switching between multiple FECs. Is this possible too in MATLAB?

Hi Akash,

Thank you for the response.

Yes, as per the current requirement it suffices to measure the MAC-to-MAC delay and reliability with several nodes sharing the wireless channel. Given this and your answer, I believe MATLAB serves the purpose.

Sorry, I was out.

You can use a two-level simulation. For example, you can use Matlab to implement the FEC, and a simulator how the use of FEC can affect to the network, in the case of the network simulator, you simulate the effect of the FEC using random generators and flags. For example, you have a probability x of to have an error, x2 2 errors ...., with this you can compute with a probability the number of errors in the packet and if the FEC code used can solve them. With this, you can simulate the behavior of the FEC in a network.

Is it not possible to measure the impact of FECs on the network through Matlab alone? I only want to measure MAC-to-MAC delay and reliability when multiple nodes share the same channel.

Also, how about having two nodes contend for the channel (resulting in collisions) and result in packet errors naturally rather than enforcing the errors through a probabilistic model?

It is possible, the only problem is the time necessary for the simulation if the number of nodes is high and you want to simulate with detail the different layers.

You can check this toolbox

https://www.mathworks.com/products/wlan.html