Lifetime-aware multicast routing in wireless ad hoc networks

One of the main design constraints in mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) is that they are energy constrained. Hence, routing algorithms must be developed to consider energy consumption of the nodes in the network as a primary goal. In MANETS, every node has to perform the junctions of a router. So if some nodes die early due to lack of energy and/or the network becomes fragmented, then it will not be possible for other nodes in the network to communicate with each other. This paper presents a lifetime-aware multicast routing algorithm that maximizes the ad hoc network lifetime by finding routing solutions that minimize the variance of the remaining energies of the nodes in the network. Extensive simulation results are provided to evaluate the performance of the new routing algorithm compared to a number of different metrics and in comparison to a variety of existing multicast routing algorithms.