A glowworm swarm optimization based multi-constraint multicast tree spanning algorithm

In communication networks, the multi-constraint multicast communication is an important way to improve the efficiency of network operation and quality of service. Some heuristic algorithms are applied in solving multicast routing problem under multiple constraints, such as simulated annealing, genetic algorithm, ant colony algorithm and particle swarm optimization algorithm. However, these algorithms suffer from low convergence rate and high computational complexity in solving multi-constraint multicast routing problems. The glowworm swarm optimization (GSO) algorithm is a promising algorithm recently arisen, which can overcome such shortcomings. This paper proposes a GSO based multi-constraint multicast (GSO-MCM) algorithm, which can efficiently generate multicast routing tree to meet the multi-constraint requirements. The simulation result manifests that the GSO-MCM algorithm proposed in this paper performs well in searching, converging speed and adaptability scale.