A system and method for representing events that occur in a real world deployment is described. A real-world workload including multiple events is identified. Multiple characteristics of the real-world workload are converted into multiple endpoint simulator workloads. Multiple gateway hardware characteristics are converted into a modeling elements for simulated Internet of things (IoT) networks. Further, a simulation is performed for each of the endpoint simulator workloads on each of the simulated IoT networks. Also, statistics are collected about the performance of the simulated IoT networks for the endpoint simulator workloads.