A Multicast Approach for Peer-to-Peer Content Distribution in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

There are synergies between mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) and peer-to-peer (P2P) networks. Some previous works consisted on the straight implementation of standard P2P content distribution protocols over MANETs. However, we ponder that such a direct approach may not be the best choice. We propose a novel P2P content distribution protocol for MANETs: peer-to-MANET (P2MAN). P2MAN takes into account the main characteristics and constraints of MANETs, while keeping useful concepts from P2P networks. P2MAN leverages on the PUMA multicast routing protocol, delivering reliable content distribution at the application layer. PUMA was chosen as P2MAN´s routing protocol due to its best performance compared to other representative multicast routing protocols. P2MAN was implemented and evaluated in the NS-2 network simulator, and its source code is publicly available. Extensive simulation results in typical MANET scenarios show that P2MAN is efficient and scalable. P2MAN good performance is mainly due to its multicast approach, applying multicast meshes for content distribution, and a basic repair mechanism for reliably sharing content among peers.