A Data Transmission Method Using Multicast in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

In mobile ad hoc networks, when a mobile host receives a data request from another host, the host usually transmits the requested data item by unicast. However, if mobile hosts hold data items that are frequently requested by others, they have to transmit the data items many times and consume a large amount of power. In this paper, we propose a data transmission method for not only maintaining data availability but also reducing traffic for data access. In our proposed method, each mobile host sends a data request attached with the deadline to receive the requested data item by the determined time. Moreover, each mobile host collects multiple requests for data items and transmits the requested data items by multicast, and thus, reduces data traffic. We also show the results of simulation experiments regarding the performance of our proposed method.