A knowledge-based inference multicast protocol using adaptive fuzzy Petri nets

Multicast routing protocols need a new path discovery algorithm for a newly joining node (receiver) in an ad hoc network. One issue of the approach to find the nearest forwarding node for a new node is that it may increase the distance between the source node and the new members, which results in an increase in latency time and packet loss, as compared with the shortest path algorithms. This issue is important in a high collision network. In this paper, we propose a knowledge-based inference approach for a new path discovery for multicasting. A fuzzy Petri net agent, which is a special expert system, is introduced at each node to learn and to adjust itself to fit the dynamic conditions in a multicast ad hoc network. The simulation results show that the proposed approach is up to 67.17% more efficient in the packet delivery ratio as compared with a bandwidth effective multicast routing protocol.