Energy-Aware Self-Stabilization in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks: A Multicasting Case Study

Dynamic networks, e.g. mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs), call for adaptive protocols that can tolerate topological changes due to nodes´ mobility and depletion of battery power. Also proactivity in these protocols is essential to ensure low latency. Self-stabilization techniques for distributed systems provide both adaptivity and proactivity to make it suitable for the MANETs. However, energy-efficiency - a prime concern in MANETs with battery-powered nodes - is not guaranteed by self-stabilization. In this paper, we propose a node-based energy metric that minimizes the energy consumption of the multicast tree by taking into account the overhearing cost. We apply the metric to self-stabilizing shortest path spanning tree (SS-SPST) protocol to obtain energy-aware SS-SPST (SS-SPST-E). Using simulations, we study the energy-latency tradeoff by comparing SS-SPST-E with SS-SPSTand other MANET multicast protocols, such as ODMRP and MAODV.